The Berserker's Dilemma
by YuriSmirnoff
Summary: A young berserker named Alexei is about to graduate from Signal Academy. He has problems with his anger, low self esteem, and loads of self doubt and hatred. A certain blonde has been trying to get past his shell, but he can't decide whether to let her in or push her away. Little does he know, his semblance will show itself soon. He faces a certain dilemma. (Rewrite of Gray Death)
1. Chapter One: Finals

**Author's Notes: For those uninformed, this is a rewrite of my story Gray Death. I found that my ideas for the story and the main character deviated greatly from what they originally were when the story began. It made the starting chapters feel disconnected from the rest of the story to me and almost made me lose interest in the whole thing. The fact that the time in between updates could span several months didn't really help. I also felt like the starting chapters just weren't nearly as good as they could have been. Now that I've taken a creative writing class and spent more time developing my writing style I feel like I can provide a better story this time. So, without further stalling, here's a retelling of Gray Death.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. Rooster Teeth does. Nor do I own the picture I am using as my cover image. That belongs to Studio Gainax and Hideaki Anno.**

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The only sound in the locker room was the occasional drop of water as it leaked from one of the shower heads and splashed lightly against the small puddle it had built up on the tiled floor. The silence was broken by almost solely the vibration of a personal scroll against the wooden bench it sat upon beside a small flip knife.

The teenage boy sitting by the scroll took his head out of his hands and sat up to look down at the device. With one hand, he picked it up and looked at the message he had received. With the message read, he put the scroll back and leaned down to tie his boot strings tight. He rolled the legs of his gray cargo pants over the footwear and began to stand. Once he was completely to his feet he slipped on a dark gray combat vest over his black t-shirt. He made sure that his left sleeve was as far down his upper arm as it could go.

Footsteps behind him drew his attention as the two figures approached through the hallway to the room. The shorter one wore a red hood and cloak with a small black dress, and the other was a larger blonde that – quite obviously – took great pride in her looks and wore a tank top and very small black shorts. The former was the one that spoke first. "Yang, are you sure it's okay for us to be in the boy's locker room?"

"Relax, sis, we're only here to meet Alexei." said Yang.

"Why is he down here anyways, it's not like he needs anything out of any of the lockers, and I kinda doubt he decided to shower before the match." Ruby was young, but she could be perceptive and quick.

"He probably had to change clothes. Why don't you ask him yourself?" The blonde asked, semi-teasingly – which was patently obvious in her tone.

The two girls stopped once they were fully in the room and able to see the subject of their conversation. Alexei turned to face them fully, but not before he made sure to stow the knife in the duffle bag on the floor. He didn't try to bother wearing a smile as he greeted them.

"Hey guys." his voice came out quietly and with a small crack on the second syllable.

"Hey, Alex." Said Ruby brightly, as per usual. "Me and Yang were wondering, why were you down here? Everyone else is at the stage already."

"I just needed some time alone I guess. No real reason." He shrugged noncommittally.

"Uh huh," Yang spoke as she gave him a look that he knew meant he'd have to talk with her alone in a few minutes, and that she wouldn't allow any escape on that front. "We should probably head up there. Isn't your match in a half hour?"

"Uh," Alexei checked his personal scroll before responding. "Yeah I think so."

"Well then, we should get going." Said Yang as she motioned for him to follow her out of the small room.

He started following the two girls through the hallway after he picked up a duffle bag beside the bench and brought the strap over his shoulder. They passed by the girl's locker room and came to the stairs leading up to the doors outside fairly quickly and without much discussion.

"Do you have enough rounds for Gray Death?" Ruby asked him once they had pushed through the double doors.

"I think so. Ten rounds per mag. I've got ten or so mags in my vest and a few more in my pants pockets. Thanks for the repairs you did on it a few days ago. Tell your uncle I said thanks too. I hope it wasn't too much of a burden." He rolled his shoulders in an effort to ease the tension in them, sighing quietly.

Ruby looked somewhat bashful as she rubbed at her arm before launching into her tirade against his weapon use. "It was nothing. You do need to watch it with those swings though. We had to completely replace the barrel plus the sights and even some of the internal springs. Make sure you don't try to stab a brick wall while the bayonet isn't out okay?"

Alexei backed away from Ruby as she began to lecture him with her finger pointing between both him and his bag. "Geez, okay Rubes. I'll remember to treat it better this time."

"It?!" Ruby nearly pushed Alexei over as she closed the distance between them. "Gray Death is your weapon! She's a part of you! An extension of who you are as a fighter! I can't believe you'd treat her so badly and act like you don't even care! Where is the real Alexei and what have you done with him?"

Ruby's face was so close to Alexei's that he could feel her breath as she yelled at him. She was even poking her finger in his chest. He took another step back and held up his hands before he spoke. "Okay, okay. I get it. I'll take better care of my weapon."

"You better." Ruby crossed her arms and stepped away from Alexei, pouting in offense for the poor 'abused' weapon. The three continued walking across the combat school's campus until they finally reached the single building that was separate from the rest.

Yang stopped before they walked in through the double doors and turned towards Ruby and Alexei. "Hey, sis, why don't you go inside without us. I want to talk to Alexei alone for a bit."

Alexei sighed quietly. Ruby gave them both a quick look with scrunched eyebrows – her 'thinking face' as she called it - before she responded. "Okay. Don't take too long. The match will start soon, and if he's late he'll be disqualified."

Yang nodded, smiling warmly. "Save me a seat." Ruby smiled and waved at the two of them before she walked inside the building.

"What is it, Yang?" Alexei spoke before she could in an attempt to somehow insert calm into the conversation before it even happened.

"I've known you long enough to tell when something's up. Spill it." She smiled faux-sweetly, looking at him steadily.

"Spill what? What is this? An interrogation?" He chuckled in an offhanded way to try and defuse her, another vain attempt doom to failure.

"Don't try to get out of this. I'm your friend and I want to know when something's bothering you." Alexei sighed and rubbed his forehead with both hands. The movement messed up the black bangs that usually came about halfway down his forehead.

"I need to focus on the match so-"

"No. Tell me now." Yang grabbed his wrists and forced his hands away from his face. His dark gray eyes met her lilac orbs for a brief second before he looked away. Her grip on his wrists loosened. "Fine. Be that way, but I'm your friend, Alex. If you ever need me I'll be right here for you."

"Thanks, Yang." Alexei gently pulled his hands out of hers and turned to face the doors. He put one hand on the handle as his other hand's grip tightened on the strap of his duffle bag. His eyes turned to his left where Yang stood. A reassuring smile appeared on her lips. He felt himself smile as he gazed at her lips. The beating of his heart sped up. His eyes lingered on her for a few more seconds until he pushed the doors open.

The noise in the arena nearly frightened Alexei. Signal Academy was the only combat school on the Island of Patch and as a result, it received almost as much funding as Beacon itself. The arena seats could hold thousands of occupants and had a few reserved places for any VIPs. One such box that Alexei noticed held both Professors Qrow and Taiyang Xiao Long. Another man sat on the other side of Qrow. Alexei felt his eyes widen involuntarily. Beside Signal's Professor of Weapon Engineering sat the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin. Behind him stood a woman with blonde hair and glasses who appeared to be working busily on a scroll tablet.

Finally over the initial shock, Alexei made his way to a small area dedicated to contestants getting ready for the match. The wall that had blocked his view of the other side of the area was put in place to make sure that neither student could see who they were up against. People seemed to be talking more in the stands once they had seen him enter the building but the words they muttered sounded like gibberish to him at the distance he was at. Scanning the stands some more, he spotted out his parents. His father waved to him in an obnoxious motion once he noticed his son looking his way. Luckily Alexei's mother grabbed his arm and forced him to stop before too much embarrassment fell upon their child. Further on from them he could see Yang walking up the steps to sit down beside Ruby. Both waved to him.

Alexei took in a deep breath and sat his bag down on the bench beside him. After pulling all the straps loose and pulling back the flap he took out his weapon in its folded up form which was a rectangle nearly three and a half feet long and mostly gray in color.

"You ready for the fight, man?" The voice caused Alexei to turn. A boy his age walked towards him with a cool smile.

"Hey, Marcus." Alexei greeted the boy. Marcus sat on the bench by Alexei and scratched at his face. "I saw your match with Lainin the other day. I can't believe you were so rough on her."

"You know how it is man," Marcus replied. "I need the scholarship more than most of the people here. Plus she's not that innocent, she's in the top ten for a reason. And I don't care if she's a Faunus. I'm not giving out special privileges just because someone's a different race than me."

"Isn't that kind of ironic coming from a black guy?" Alexei asked with a raised eyebrow, smiling faux-condescendingly.

Marcus laughed before punching Alexei in the arm. "Always a smartass."

"I'd rather be a smartass than a dumbass." Alexei rubbed at the spot Marcus had hit. He rubbed at it even more after Marcus punched him again for his mock insult. The actual rubbing was mostly for show, however, as Alexei's aura had absorbed both playful attacks entirely.

"Who do you think you'll be up against?" Marcus asked, adopting a mildly more serious tone.

Alexei stared at the wall blocking his view of his opponent's warm up area and shrugged. "No idea. Probably someone in the top ten, like us. I know it's not going to be you or that Lainin girl for obvious reasons. That just leaves seven others. Knowing my luck it'll probably be Aaden."

"The guy in the number one slot?" Marcus leaned back and closed his eyes. "Yeah you'd probably be screwed. His style and semblance are like a direct 'fuck you' to your own style in a lot of ways. Plus you don't know your own semblance."

"Way to rub it in. I can just feel the confidence rushing through my veins." Alexei glanced over to his friend, who had started to rub his chin in thought.

"There sure are a lot of VIPs here." Marcus muttered curiously as he gazed around the stands.

"I didn't really notice." Alexei lied as he followed the other boy's sightline. "Or maybe I didn't want to notice so that I could be a little less nervous."

"Look, the Beacon headmaster himself showed up. I had heard he was friends with Qrow, but to actually show up in person to watch students from a school he doesn't even run is strange." Marcus ignored Alexei's self-questioning statement entirely.

"Well, a lot of Beacon's students come from Signal. It's not that weird." despite saying this, Alexei felt as though his Weapon Engineering professor and possible future headmaster were watching him. He shook his head before speaking again. "Looks like there's a representative from Atlas' academy here. Have you thought about going there after graduation?"

Marcus shook his head. "From what I heard the headmaster there is a general. Runs the place like a military school."

"Isn't that what hunter schools technically are?" Alexei asked.

"You know what I mean." Marcus said, crossing his arms. "It just sounds too strict to me, ya know? I figure Beacon will be the best choice."

Alexei nodded as he scanned a few more VIP boxes before his eyes stopped on another. This box only held a girl in a high quality purple outfit. "That one doesn't have a representative in it."

Marcus looked to where his friend was pointing. "Isn't that the Grimoire family heiress?"

"I think her first name's Olivia." Alexei's voice held some amount of distaste and innate animosity. "Probably got a special seat here with daddy's money so that she could see what kind of competition she's up against in the academy she no doubt bought her way into."

Marcus gave Alexei a look with lowered eyebrows. "Or maybe she just likes watching school matches. Jeez man, what's with all the hate? I always knew you didn't care for rich people, but damn."

"It's nothing." Alexei looked away from Olivia Grimoire and her purple dress. "Just a family tradition to dislike rich people I guess."

"Yeah, whatever bro. Anyways, I should probably let you get ready. I'm keeping some friends waiting after all." Marcus waved as he rose quietly to his feet.

Alexei turned away from the other boy and back to his weapon. Lazily, he began rubbing off some lint from the duffle bag that had stuck to the body. "See you, man." Was all he said in response. Marcus gave a nod and walked back up into the stands. Despite being alone now, Alexei could still hear the sounds of the crowd. Staring at the wall that blocked his view of his opponent, he silently went over all the possible students he could be up against.

"Um...h-hey Alexei." a quiet voice to his left made him jump and bang his head against the wall behind him. He clutched the back of his head as he felt a headache coming on. "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

His attention was now fully given to the girl who had surprised him out of his thought process. He recognized her as she stuttered and went from pulling on the sleeves of her vibrant green outfit to shakily running her hands through her red hair. "Hey Amanda, I guess I was just lost in thought, don't stress over it." His words seemed to stop her shaking at least a little. "So what brings you here?"

"I just wanted to…" her words trailed off awkwardly. She brought her hands down and started playing with them nervously as she was wont to do.

"I've told you that you don't have to act so nervous around me." Alexei smiled and felt his heartbeat increase in tempo as he watched the girl in front of him try to regain her composure.

"I know…" Yet again, Amanda's speech fell apart. She took a deep breath. "I just came to talk before your match."

"See. That wasn't so hard." he gave her the best smile he could muster up at the moment. The look she gave him told him that his act wasn't very convincing.

"I-Is something wrong?"

He looked away from her face and stared back at the wall that would drop soon enough to reveal the arena and his opponent. Alexei sighed before giving his response. "Just anxious I guess."

The two remained silent for a bit after that. The only real sound that Alexei could hear was the sound of Amanda tugging on the ends of her sleeves. Minutes continued to tick by as Alexei shifted in his seat multiple times in the awkward silence.

"U-um...Alexei?" Amanda had let her right arm hang at her side while her left gripped it at the elbow. Due to this, her forearm had come to rest under a portion of her female anatomy that she was certainly not lacking in and had unintentionally accentuated them even further. This sight went far from unnoticed to Alexei, who took a few seconds before he managed to tear his eyes from what his hormones demanded that he stare at further. Wandering eyes now under control, he managed to look at her own eyes to notice that they were intently studying the wall beside them. Alexei took a gulp before he opened his mouth again.

"What is it?"

"I...uh, was wondering if you're seeing-"

Two rapid beeps startled the two teenagers. Alexei felt his pocket vibrate and reached inside to pull out his scroll. He took a quick glance at the number before giving the girl in front of him an apologetic look.

"I-It's alright." she said to him, smiling encouragingly.

Alexei pushed a button on the device and put it to his ear. "Are you ready to start, Seryy?"

Alexei's eyes wandered up to another one of the VIP boxes. There the headmaster of Signal looked down at him while holding his own scroll to his ear. Alexei nodded and spoke. "Yes, sir."

The headmaster put down his scroll and ended the call before looking at a piece of paper and entering another number, presumably to call whomever he was going to be facing.

"Are they ready for you to start?" Amanda asked beside him, voice as small as ever.

"Yeah." Alexei replied as he put his scroll back into his pocket. "I'm pretty sure the match starts in a few minutes. What were you going to say?"

Amanda paused for a moment in what seemed to be thought, mouth opening to say something, and then shook her head. "No, it's not really important. You should get ready."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-Yeah. Good luck." the girl in green turned around and walked back to the stands. For the second time, Alexei had to regain control over his hormone-fueled eyes as he watched a certain part of the girl's anatomy as she walked away.

' _What was she about to say?'_ he wondered to himself. He shook his head firmly and turned back to face the wall that would be lowering soon enough to expose his opponent.

Alexei stretched for a few seconds and worked out any kinks in his neck and back. Leather fingerless gloves were pulled over his hands. He picked up his weapon and pushed in a button on the side. Immediately the device whirled to life as it unfurled into a rifle four feet in length. Colored gray and black from barrel to stock, most would call it bland when compared to the flashy weapons most hunters carried. Another black device rested underneath the barrel of gun. Alexei pushed a button on its side and a bayonet flipped outwards. The rifle-mounted blade extended a full two feet past the end of the gun barrel. It was a dark gray color like the rest of the weapon.

With the bayonet out, he sat down and pulled back on the bolt to load in a single bullet before pushing a magazine into the weapon. Once he had the weapon fully loaded he stood to his feet and twisted the rifle similar to a baton using a handhold attached to the upper receiver.

"Test, test." a voice boomed over the intercom. Conversations around the arena began dying down as the members of the audience turned their attention to the area below them. The man in sound booth continued. "Hello and welcome to the third and final day of the Signal Academy End-of-the-Year Tournament, where students close to graduation who choose to take part are randomly selected to compete against a randomly selected student near their own level for a chance at scholarships and cash prizes! Rules are: no use of live fire rounds, no conscious attempts at lethal damage, no use of any prohibited semblances, and no unauthorized uses of aura. Anyone found in violation of these rules will be immediately disqualified. First to knock their opponent's aura into the red zone wins!"

Alexei let the information wash over him as he felt his pulse through his neck. Slowly, he gained control of his breathing and all but stopped the shakiness in his body. Sounds of hands clapping surrounded him as the audience applauded.

"To start off our round of matches today, we have two students in Signal's very own top ten!" Alexei's body stiffened as he heard the announcer's words.

' _Who was I kidding? I knew I'd have to go up against someone else in the top ten'_ , he thought. The wall in front of him began to lower itself slowly.

"Our first competitor is in the number four slot for his class! An impressive feat considering the fact that he still has yet to reveal a semblance! He favors a fast and hard hitting combat style, ladies and gentlemen, please, welcome, Alexei Seryy!"

More applause filled the room. Alexei could barely make out the sound of his own father giving his own somewhat obnoxious cheers. He looked back over at Yang and Ruby. Both sisters were cheering loudly while pumping their fists. The applause died down, giving the announcer an opening to introduce Alexei's opponent.

"Our second fighter is in the number one slot for our graduating class!" Alexei froze in place, his mouth opened to take a sharp breath of air. "With a semblance that reflects his opponent's attacks back at them, and a preference for defensive maneuvers, he's been considered Alexei's opposite for awhile here at Signal! Give an applause for Aaden Selah!"

' _There's no way this is random'_ , Alexei thought. Shining silver armor revealed itself as Aaden's own wall lowered along with Alexei's to reveal them to each other. The lighter-haired boy nodded to Alexei before he slipped on his helmet and picked up his rapier and great-shield. ' _The guy in the top ten who fights the most aggressively against the guy who's the most defensively. Headmaster must have wanted a good show to start off the last day.'_

The two teens walked forwards and to the center of the arena. The rapier in Aaden's right hand almost glowed as light shone off of its four foot long blade. The great-shield itself was four-and-a-half feet tall and two feet at its widest. A detailed design decorated the outside of the shield while the inside housed a mirror that Alexei watched his own reflection in. Aaden's slim and somewhat rounded armor and helmet also gave off vibrant shines and reflections, making the protection appear more like glass than any metal.

All movement stopped once the two were in front of each other. Alexei held his rifle at a slant, with the barrel and bayonet pointed at the ground. He stood with his feet at shoulder length from each other and his knees at a slight bend. Aaden stood so that his shield was down and not weighing on his arm, while he held his rapier almost parallel to the ground with the point downwards. The two stood ten feet from each other. At first, neither spoke a word, and instead stood and studied the other in silence. Aaden was the first to speak, "I guess we both should've guessed we would have wound up facing off against each other eventually."

"If I was smart I probably should have sparred with you at some point." Alexei replied.

Aaden gave a light laugh, shaking his head in amusement, "I admit, I'm interested to see how this match will go."

"Are the referees ready?" the man's voice boomed over the sound system again. Two men and a woman standing evenly around the arena in the stands all raised and gave thumbs up." Is the audience ready?" Cheers filled the room. Once the noise died down, the announcer spoke again. "Are the contestant's ready?"

Alexei and Aaden raised their own arms and gave thumbs up as well, an awkward feat for Aaden, who had to do so with his rapier still in hand.

"Then the match will begin on the third buzz! Good luck you two!"

A buzz loud enough to be considered an air-horn shook the air. Alexei took in a deep breath and made sure he had a stable grip on his rifle. Aaden moved his shield in front of him and rested its bottom on the ground. All that Alexei could see of his opponent was his round helmet and pointed rapier in a readied position.

The second buzzer pierced the air. Alexei managed to make eye contact with Aaden through the slits in his helmet. The two shared a nod as Alexei widened his position in preparation. The audience itself was completely silent, causing the moment to last even longer for Alexei. The light that shone above the two along with the lack of light above the crowd made the armor of his current rival appear to shine even more brightly. An intensity that threatened to blind him if he stared into it for too long.

One final buzz sounded. At first neither one moved, instead choosing to wait for the other. It was Alexei who moved first.

Digging his left foot into the ground, he attempted to make it around Aaden's left flank to strike. Before the stabbing motion from his bayonet could hit, however, Aaden brought around his shield to block. The aura pulsing from the shining knight's shield seemed to wrap around the tip of Gray Death's bayonet for only a second before it pushed back with equal force. With the force from his attack completely reflected back at him, Alexei stumbled back as his opponent shifted his stance to better face Alexei in his current position.

Alexei cocked his head for a second as he studied the shield and his target's stance as best he could. Pushing down on his feet again, he leapt back and attempted to run in a circle around Aaden. Once he was sure he could land a shot, he raised his weapon as he continued running. Once the stock was firmly against his shoulder, his finger squeezed on the trigger. The near-deafening boom of the fifty caliber rifle filled the whole building and sent a shockwave across Alexei's shoulder as his aura took the majority of the recoil. The huge rubber round shot forth, clipping the back of Aaden's armored left shin, and partly denting the armor there. The next three rounds followed in under two seconds, but all bounced against Aaden's now reinforced aura. One final rubber bullet flew from the barrel and struck Aaden's shield in the center, where its force was reversed and shot back at Alexei. It missed his side by a few centimeters.

Finishing his sprint, Alexei stopped and took a breath after his experiment. Narrowed gray eyes examined the knight before him. His feet were once again put to work as he quickly closed the thirty foot distance between the two of them. As he reached the other boy, his opponent stabbed forward with his rapier. Using his rifle's bayonet, he managed to parry and jumped straight up to plant one foot on Aaden's still-forward-facing shield. He used his momentum to force the shield upwards as he brought down his rifle to stab its bayonet at the shining knight's helmet. Before the sharp tip could even come into contact with the other teen's aura, a force propelled itself from Aaden's great-shield. Alexei flew back and nearly lost his grip on Gray Death while in the air. He tried shooting the rest of his magazine at his rival's exposed legs, but missed nearly every shot due to his lack of stability.

Added momentum from his weapon's recoil flung him back further. Collective gasps and cheers came from the audience when his back collided with the wall behind him. "With the grace and agility of a housecat." Alexei breathed out bitterly once he rose to his feet and ejected his spent mag.

Alexei looked from his opponent to one of the half-dozen screens displaying his face along with Aaden's. Below the faces were brief stats with their respective current aura levels. Both were still in the green, yet Alexei's was noticeably lower and Aaden's had barely moved at all. Alexei shook his head and reached for a new magazine, before he looked back at his opponent. He was forced to roll to the right in order to dodge the knights charge. Missing him by a inches meant that Aaden sent his shield into the wall Alexei had been in front of. Another thrust from Aaden's rapier was blocked by his aura as he rolled.

Once he was a safe distance away, Alexei slid in another magazine before quickly chambering one of the ten fresh rubber rounds. Aaden gave another charge with his shield held forward. Taking the offensive as well, Alexei ran around Aaden as his shield grew close and pushed a button on the stock of Gray Death. Clicking and the sounds of sliding metal could be heard as Alexei twisted around the rifle as its stock extended outwards by a foot and opened. With the fully transformed weapon, he took a wide swing at Aaden's now exposed right flank. The hit rebounded off of the knight's aura as his semblance took effect again. The sudden shift in force caused Alexei to stumble back. Using the extra energy he took a few more steps back.

The audience stared at Alexei's weapon in its fully transformed mode. After the stock had extended out, two one-foot-long axe blades had folded out to complete the weapon. Alexei's grip on the rifle-axe tightened as he gritted his teeth. While firing from the hip, he charged at Aaden. The rubber rounds were sucked onto the shield, where they stuck in its center. Alexei closed the gap and swung with the axe first, against the shield. The attack pushed his opponent backwards, but most of the force was still deflected back at himself. With a roar, he ran back again and attacked, only for Aaden to use his semblance to once again render his strike useless. He stopped his axe as it went backwards and brought it down again, pumping more of his aura into strengthening his attacks. He wailed on Aaden until he began to feel the drain in his aura, and a tiredness in his muscles. Alexei backed off and surveyed what his rage had accomplished.

Aaden had been knocked further back, until his back foot was against the wall. Alexei chanced another glance at one of the screens. A chill ran down his back. Aaden's aura level had been barely affected by Alexei's flurry of attacks, while Alexei's own aura had already entered the yellow. Not only had he been using his aura for his offensive attacks, Aaden must have gotten in a few jabs with his rapier. Head turned back to his opponent, Alexei backed into the center of the arena, allowing Aaden to move away from the wall, with his shield still up. Alexei took a few deep breaths and lessened his grip, giving his aching, bone-white knuckles some much needed relief.

Taking time to think this time, Alexei waited until the shield user was fifteen feet away before he broke out into another charge. Gray Death was in his right hand, held by the handle above its upper receiver. Once Alexei was close enough for Aaden to attempt to bash him with his shield, Alexei pulled back his left hand and charged up aura into the attack. Once his gloved fist reached the shield, the force behind the attack was predictably flung backwards. Taking advantage of the reversed force, Alexei twisted his body around Aaden until he was behind the knight. The last of the momentum, along with some more aura was used to bring the axe end of Gray Death around to hack at his rival's exposed back. Alexei gave a grunt of satisfaction when the metal hit Aaden's aura directly and caused the armored opponent to stumble forwards.

Displaying more speed than Alexei had anticipated, Aaden twisted around and gave a successful thrust at his exposed chest. The damage was absorbed, but he could still feel the aura drain. Another backwards roll increased the distance between him and the shining knight yet again. Alexei breathed in and out heavily, the exhaustion of the fight quickly catching up with him. He ejected his current magazine to put in another. His opponent wasn't nearly as docile.

Aaden planted the bottom of his shield into the ground. The lines of its outside decoration began to glow. Swirling energy snaked its way from the great-shield's outside and to its mirror center, where the rubber bullets Alexei had shot at it earlier were still stuck. Once the glowing energy was there, it began to shine in intensity. Eyes darting to the screen, Alexei noticed that Aaden's aura was slowly lowering for whatever attack he had planned. Breaking into another sprint, Alexei attempted to run in a circle around Aaden to avoid the attack, but Aaden tracked his movements by shifting his shield as Alexei ran. Then the attack came. With a bright and impressive expenditure of aura, Aaden stumbled backwards as all the charged up aura as well as Alexei's bullets shot out from the shield. The wave of energy continued onwards at the speed of a car. As it traveled, its width only increased, until it reached a point that Alexei would have no chance of rolling to avoid. Seeing no other option, Alexei used a small amount of aura to assist with a jump.

The jump was high enough to clear the majority of the blast, however, the top of the wave still caught him from the mid-thighs and down. The sharp pain in his left shin told him that he was also unlucky enough to have caught one of the bullets as well. Alexei was sent spinning as the force from the blast threw him into a front flip. His vision faded for a second as his head collided hard enough with the ground for it to collide directly with his skull instead of being blocked completely by his aura. The audience gasped. He could vaguely hear multiple people cheering his name, encouraging him to get up. Using his hands, he pushed himself up to his feet. Pushing past his dizziness, he picked up Gray Death and focused his somewhat blurry vision on the screen again.

His aura was dangerously low in the yellow. If he took any more damage, he knew that one more hit would send him into the red. His grip on Gray Death tightened enough to turn his knuckles white yet again. ' _Why the fuck can't any-fucking-thing go right? Why did they have to put me up against this smug prick? If only I could break that damn shield and send that tin can flying. I just want to break him.'_ Alexei's entire body began to shake as his breath became heavy. His left hand clutched at the area above his left eyebrow, where he had struck the ground head first. His teeth gritted and his upper lip curled into a sneer. The pain in his shin and head all but disappeared.

The crowd as well as Aaden watched the gray-clad teen in front of them, silence filled the room. Soon the only sound was a human roar. Alexei charged yet again at Aaden, the aura around him becoming visible and darkening. On the screen, Alexei's aura levels began to rise slowly. Many audience members began to talk amongst themselves, saying how that should be impossible. All eyes watched as Alexei lifted Gray Death over his head. Aaden kept his shield prepared for the blow. With the force of a train, the axe-rifle hybrid collided with the mirror great-shield along with their respective wielders' auras.

Alexei felt his lips twist across his face as his teeth grinded together. Looking into Aaden's helmet to see his eyes lose their stoic confidence to be replaced with wide-eyed terror only served to increase his malice. The shield attempted to push Gray Death back, but as its force continued to increase to reflect the axe's, Alexei pushed more of his body and aura into the stalemate. Cracks began to form below Aaden's metal boots. Alexei continued pushing more and more until he leered over Aaden much like a wolf would over a lamb. Aaden desperately thrust with his rapier. Alexei felt something collide with his chest. The buildup of aura between the blade of Gray Death's axe and Aaden's shield grew in intensity. Soon, a crack began to form on Aaden's shield right where the axe threatened to come down upon it. The sound of the glass beginning to break was music to Alexei's ears. With one final push, the buildup of aura between the two, as well as the glass shield finally reached a breaking point. The sound of the mirror and Gray Death's axe head shattering entirely was as loud as a lion's roar in the arena. Loud enough to nearly drown out the sound of more pops and cracks. The explosion afterwards was even louder.

Alexei's body was thrown backwards one last time. He skittered across the room before landing on his side. Aaden flew through the air as well. His armored back thudded hard against the wall behind him, creating a small crater. The only thing in his hand was the handle of the mirror shield with a broken chunk still attached. The audience was silent.

Slowly, Alexei rose to his feet, albeit, even more shakily than he had before and only using his right hand. A strange tightness in his chest as well as the unresponsiveness of his left arm didn't bother him. He pulled up Gray Death to see that in addition to one axe head being shattered, the stock was warped to the side. "Man, Ruby's gonna frickin' kill me." his words were barely heard over the collective gasps and screams heard around the room.

Looking around, Alexei couldn't find a reason for the audience to be so distraught. Then he saw the screen to notice that while he had successfully taken Aaden into the low red, he himself had no aura left to speak of. The fact that he even managed to stand was a miracle.

"Oh my god, Aaden's rapier it's..." Alexei heard the announcer and looked up into the VIP box where he sat with his sound equipment. The man was pointing down at the arena shakily. Alexei looked all over on the ground for the weapon, but couldn't see it anywhere. "It's sticking out of Alexei's chest!"

Alexei froze. ' _There's no way. I can't feel it. I'd feel it. I don't feel anything. I feel great_ '. Despite all of his self-reassurance, Alexei looked down to prove that the accusation was false. He gasped. His breaths quickly became raspy.

The decorated silver handle of the rapier was sprouting from his chest like a tree sapling. He grabbed the sword by the blade and pulled it forwards. Dark red blood coated it where it had been sticking inwards. Alexei didn't pull it further than three inches before his adrenaline rush wore off completely. Pain assaulted his entire body. He fell to his knees and began to shake violently. No sounds escaped his mouth as he fell fully to the ground once again.

One of the referees ran to his side and yelled out words he could barely understand. "We need to get him to the ambulance! He's going into shock!"

Blood erupted from his mouth as he began to cough violently. Any and all sounds around him began to blur over into each other. He could barely feel himself getting pulled onto a stretcher as he was quickly carried away. The sights of his friends and family and even Aaden trying to follow them only to be blocked by one of the refs were one of the last things he could make out. The looks of wide-eyed and open-mouthed horror on their faces were all he could see before he lost consciousness.

* * *

"I never knew that Seryy boy was so impulsive." Taiyang Xiao Long mused as he leaned back in his chair. "Did you know he was like this, Qrow?"

"I always knew he held back more emotion than he ever let on." his ex-brother-in-law replied. "I never could have guessed that it would come out like this. Perhaps it's not entirely unreasonable that some students refer to him as, 'The Berserker'."

"You don't think he's a danger around the girls, do you?" Taiyang asked again, fatherly concern forcing its way into the discussion.

"I've never gotten the impression that he'd harm either one, no." The man smiled reassuringly.

"I'll kill him if he even thinks about it." Taiyang grunted comfortably, relaxing ever so slightly.

Qrow gave a small laugh. "Don't worry, if anything, I think he may have feelings for Yang."

Taiyang gave Qrow a sideways look. "Then maybe I should visit whatever hospital room they'll be putting him in and kill him there after all, blame it on his wounds."

Qrow laughed again, this time louder. "No matter how much you dislike it, your two girls will find somebody with whom they'll want to be more than friends with eventually. If Alexei Seryy does indeed have feelings for my eldest niece, I can't say that I'd mind entirely. He probably just needs a little more self-control is all."

"That's an even better reason to keep him from the two girls!" Taiyang snapped at him.

Qrow's laughter continued unabated, "You're talking badly of him due to his lack of self-control? I think you're forgetting your past relationships."

"One of which was your sister!" Taiyang countered with a pointing finger.

Qrow laughed for a few more seconds until he finished. "Either way, there's a very real possibility that he will not survive those wounds."

"We've all seen hunters survive far worse." the headmaster of Beacon spoke from his chair on the other side of Qrow. "From what you've told me, the young Seryy may have a large amount of aura. I can only wonder if we caught a glimpse of his semblance today."

Resting his hand under his chin, Qrow spoke thoughtfully. "It's possible that it could be something related to anger. He seemed to enter an almost fugue like state."

"Do you think his semblance might be similar to Yang's?" Taiyang asked.

"It could be." Qrow leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "What do you think, Oz?"

Ozpin was quiet as he took a sip from his mug. Once finished, he opened his mouth to speak. "Glynda, could you set up an interview with Aaden Selah? I would like to ask him if he saw anything that we couldn't see from here. I am also interested in enrolling him at Beacon, assuming he survives."

"Yes, Professor." His blonde assistant replied obediently before taking out her scroll.

Qrow looked over at his older friend. "You don't think his semblance is something along those lines, do you?"

"We have to prepare for the possibility." Ozpin replied grimly, neither confirming it nor trying to deny it for now.

"What?" Asked Taiyang in mild concern, "What are you two thinking?"

"I don't want to say anything at the moment, but if the boy's semblance is something along the lines I'm thinking, then he could prove to be either a huge danger to those around him, or a huge asset in the coming war. Perhaps both." said Ozpin.

Taiyang narrowed his lilac eyes. "Whatever, the two of you never think to let me in on your schemes anyways. Just make sure it isn't something that could harm my girls."

"You know I'd never consciously allow any harm to come to either of them, Taiyang." Qrow said. "They're the only family I have left too. I consider you to be my family as well."

"I know." Taiyang rose to his feet. "But no plan is perfect. I'll fight in this war the two of you keep talking about, but if something goes wrong, I will do everything in my power to protect my girls. Even if it means hurting someone who I consider to be family." With that final thought, the blond-haired man walked past Glynda and out of the VIP booth.

"He calls Alexei and his own daughter impulsive, but sometimes he's no better. He always was a bit of a hopeless romantic." said Qrow, watching as his ex-brother-in-law joined with his nieces.

"A good parent will always put their children before anything else," said Ozpin safely, sipping his tea once more. "Both of the women that the two of you were on a team with were _very_ good parents. Which is why they both did what they knew needed to be done."

Qrow was quiet before he spoke again, this time sobered by the words Ozpin had spoken. "What will we do if your hypothesis on the boy is correct?"

Ozpin looked at his friend for a second before turning back to the arena. The bleachers were emptying out as the audience was given a break after the fight they had just witnessed. "Until solid evidence is provided, we cannot jump to any conclusions. Any number of things could have attributed to his performance here tonight. Adrenaline rushes have been known to make normal civilians kill Grimm with their bare hands. For now our only clue was that the monitors seemed to detect that his aura level rose before his attack. That in itself is a strong indicator that something occurred of importance."

"If you are right about this though, he'll be a huge danger. It could be best to make sure that he won't be able to get out into the field at all."

"Throwing away his dreams because of a hunch would be a far worse outcome. If I am correct and we decide to end his career as a hunter here, before it would even have a chance to begin, the results could be even worse. We'll need him in a place where we can keep an eye on him. Not here on Patch or in Vale among civilians. No, I think that Beacon could be the safest place to keep him." Ozpin took a long drink of his mug after finishing. He spoke once more, "If it wouldn't be too much of a bother, I would like it if you could provide me a document detailing him, his history, current social status, his interactions with your nieces and yourself. As well as his grades and plans after graduation, if you know them. I know that some of this information is private, but it may be more valuable than either of us could know."

"I can do that for you." Qrow replied, his voice solemn. Ozpin rose from his seat. "Leaving already, Oz?"

"Yes. I apologize. I did say that I'd stay for a few matches, but with this revelation, I may need to spend some time with Glynda reworking my schedule. I'll be sure to drop by for graduation day, however." He smiled warmly at the man and stepped past him, patting his shoulder in a friendly way as he did so.

"I'll provide you with the information you need within the week." Ozpin nodded and turned to leave the booth, Glynda opening the door for him. "Hey, Oz? I feel so tired. Talking about these children as though they were soldiers and war assets has been wearing on my mind and body. I don't like it."

Ozpin stopped to look over his shoulder. "Neither do I, old friend. The only comfort either of us can take is that what we are doing will provide a safer, more stable world for their children, and perhaps, even for them as well." he was silent for a moment. Glynda watched him carefully. "Until we meet again."

Qrow gave a nod. Ozpin walked through the door, slowing to allow Glynda to walk beside him.

"You were fairly quiet, Glynda." The man's vocal observation was mostly monotone. "Do you really have no opinion of the situation at hand?"

Glynda stayed quiet as she put away her tablet. "I agree with Mister Xiao Long. Alexei Seryy seems too impulsive. Whatever rage he let out today proved that he's unstable at best. If someone like him has a powerful semblance, he could become too great a danger. I'd say that he needs therapy before we could even consider letting him in a real combat situation."

"Even if he doesn't have much control, it would have taken at least some planning to come up with the strategy of pushing against the shield until it and its owner buckled under the force it was producing. He must also possess a large amount of strength to accomplish such a feat."

"Or perhaps he's just lucky." Glynda said curtly. "Or he simply threw his weight around and it worked out."

"You and I both know that luck and talent can be more valuable than skill alone." Ozpin finished his tea in one last gulp. "I'm going to take him into Beacon regardless, if that's what he wants."

"Sometimes you are too quick to make decisions." Glynda said in a soft rebuke.

"And sometimes, my dear Miss Goodwitch, you are too quick to make judgements." he said back in a similar way. "Before we depart, I'd like to pick up some more tea."

Glynda rolled her green eyes as they walked out of the arena. "You and that drink. After all these years, there are still some things I don't understand about you."

* * *

Alexei's eyes opened and closed multiple times over the course of the next twenty four hours. Once he had briefly seen his parents. His mother sat with the look on her face she always wore when she could barely hold back tears. His father wore the same face he always wore in a serious situation. One that couldn't seem to decide whether it was stoic and uncaring, or tearful and emotional.

On another occasion, a middle-aged and somewhat plump woman in a nurse uniform was fiddling with an IV above his head. He had lazily tried to push himself up with his left arm, but found that the pain it was in provided too much of a struggle for him to move. The woman put a gentle hand on his hand to stop him and smiled down at him. She spoke words that he couldn't understand as he closed his eyes again.

Finally, Alexei's eyes opened and stayed that way. For a few minutes, he studied the ceiling. The tiles were white. A few squares were taken up by ceiling lights. The walls were a relaxing shade of blue. The only sound amidst the heavy silence was the beep of the machine monitoring his heart rate. Two lone chairs sat by the bed. Another sat by the window. A small television was attached to the wall above the door, which faced the bed. A second, smaller door was opposite to the window. Other than that the room was entirely empty.

"I thought it was a rule that you were supposed to wake up with someone waiting for you in the hospital." Alexei mumbled to himself. Shifting around in the bed, a jolt of pain shot up his right arm. Alexei turned his head to investigate, and discovered that his arm, from just below his armpit to his forearm was wrapped in a cast. It had been applied in a way so that his elbow was bent. Currently, there a bit of skin that itched underneath which he couldn't get to. His chest was partially covered by bandages that assumedly covered the scar from his stab wound. His left arm felt sore, most of the pain was at the shoulder. He froze. Slowly, he lifted his the left sleeve of the hospital gown he was currently wearing. Underneath was a bandage covering a four inch area. "I can come up with something." He muttered to himself.

After a long silence, he looked for the remote, and found it on the nightstand by the bed. Unfortunately, said nightstand was on the right side of the bed. The struggle to grab the remote with his left hand put extra stress on his shoulder, making him wince in pain. Nevertheless, he risked his healing joint and was rewarded with the black rectangular device filled with buttons. Another few seconds passed as he searched for the power button. Once the television was on, he remembered why he had never cared for it in the first place. Several seconds of quick channel flipping later, he paused on a news station, but settled on a kid's channel.

An hour of cartoons later, the door facing his hospital bed opened. A middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair walked in. He held a clipboard and wore a long white coat with a dark blue tie that stuck out against his light blue shirt. The hair on his head looked to be receding and he had bags under his brown eyes. Stepping in the room, the man immediately noticed the powered-on television above him as well as the fact that the teenager across from him was sitting up and awake.

"Ah, Mister…" the doctor checked his clipboard. "Seryy." he had trouble pronouncing Alexei's last name, something that didn't surprise him. "I had thought that you might have woken up soon enough."

"How long have I been in here?" Alexei asked. He picked up the remote and turned off the television.

The doctor checked his clipboard yet again, followed by the watch on his wrist. "A little over twenty-six hours now. You have a very strong aura. The average person would have been out a least another day or two. Then again, I guess you'd have to be more than average to place fourth in your class at a combat school."

"I'm just stubborn." Alexei said, losing eye contact with the doctor.

"Really, with the amount of damage your body sustained, while on critically low levels of aura, you should have died." he flipped through his papers. "While in the middle of your fight, you put an unstable amount of aura into your arms to strengthen your attack. The stress you put your right arm through caused your humerus to break along with some minor hairline fractures along your radius and ulna. You didn't put as much into your left arm as you did your right, however, it was still enough to cause your shoulder to dislocate. In the explosion, you cracked two ribs.

Aaden Selah, your match opponent, made a desperate attack to get you off of him. He thrusted at your chest with his rapier. While it should have been stopped by your aura, you had used up all of your aura in your attack. As a result, it went straight into your chest, nicking your left lung, in the process, but managing to miss your heart, spine, and any other organs." the doctor spoke in an almost distant voice. "Your lung began to fill with blood, but luckily, it was only one lung. After the referees got you to the ambulance, the paramedics stabilized you. We managed to reinflate your lung here and treat all of your injuries. At the rate you're healing however, I think we'll have you out in a few days, and the cast might come off in a about three or so weeks."

"Thanks, doctor…" Alexei trailed off, not seeing any name tag on the man.

"Dr. Carson."

"Thank you, Dr. Carson. I didn't cost my parents too much money, did I?" He asked hopefully.

The doctor gave a small chuckle. "You won't need to worry about that. In fact, your parents didn't even need to ask your insurance for any money." Alexei stayed silent. The doctor took this as sign to continue talking. "Your medical bill was paid in full by Beacon Academy's headmaster."

Alexei's eyebrows lowered suspiciously. "Do you have any idea why he would do that?"

"No idea, son." the doctor moved his clipboard around to look down at it again. "You can ask him yourself actually. He asked for me to call him when you woke up, which I'll do after I address something." with a suddenness that seemed practiced, Dr. Carson's tone and posture turned serious. "It's about some peculiar scars that we discovered on your upper left arm when we removed your shirt to put your shoulder back into place."

"Cat scratches." Alexei said quickly and with a deadpan tone, shrugging calmly.

The doctor paused. His eyes looked at Alexei in a way that made him feel as though he was being examined. "I see. Well, your cat has a remarkable habit of scratching you in a pattern. The scars I saw were in a row, with some cut perpendicular to that row. In fact, upon closer examination, I could see that that area of skin on your upper arm was covered in old scars that seem to have already healed over. There were even a few in the same area on your right arm."

"Our cats can be pretty aggressive." Alexei said in much the same tone as before.

"Well, you're seventeen years old, so I'm supposed to keep this confidential unless given your permission. If you ever change your mind, there are plenty of professionals you can talk to about your 'cat scratches'." The somewhat affable, if somewhat fabricated, atmosphere that the doctor had carried with him earlier was gone entirely. "Shall I take my leave and call Headmaster Ozpin?"

"Sure." said Alexei. The doctor nodded and exited through the door. ' _I wonder if it was an option to say no'_ , he thought. ' _Do I want to see him?'_

For the next hour or so, Alexei did whatever he could to hold off his own boredom. Once he had felt every last bit of bandage on his body, he had gone back to watching television. The cheesy action show ended with the good guys catching their bad guy and laughing at a joke made by the comic relief character. A few seconds into the credits he turned off the television as the door opened again.

A man in a dark green suit with a lighter green shirt underneath his vest with golden buttons walked into the room. In his right hand was a cup with some drink inside that he couldn't see clearly. His left hand rested upon a dark gray cane with a silver handle. He wore a neutral expression when he opened his mouth, "Alexei Seryy. You might be one of the fastest healers I have ever met. I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, the woman behind me is my deputy headmistress, Professor Goodwitch."

A blonde woman walked in behind him. While her posture, expression, glasses, and carefully groomed hair suggested that she was a professional, her clothing seemed less so. The deep purple cape on her back in particular was a strange sight to him. Another oddity in her attire that Alexei thought was strange on such a professional looking woman was the cleavage that her her white business shirt revealed. Cleavage that Alexei's eyes had lingered on for too long. The unapproving look that she gave him made him feel instantly guilty. Ozpin looked between the two, a somewhat amused look in his eye.

"Well I can tell that you are a healthy teenage boy." while the smirk on Ozpin's face was nearly unnoticeable, as was the change in his tone, it was clear that he found some enjoyment in teasing Alexei and annoying his colleague. "I imagine, however, that you'll want to know why we're here."

"That and I'd like to know why you paid for my medical bill." Alexei said once his embarrassment had died down. "Not that I don't appreciate it. I just want to know what's so special that the headmaster of Beacon himself would take time out of his schedule and money out of his wallet on me."

Ozpin sat in the chair by the window, his assistant moved to stand beside him. "Alexei, may I call you by your first name?" Alexei gave a nod in response. "Like it or not, you are special to some degree. Number four in your class is impressive, to say the least. A hunter academy will typically only look at the top ten to twenty percent of a combat school's graduating class before making their decision. You are in Signal's top one percent."

"Yeah, sure I understand that." said Alexei, the deputy headmistress narrowed her eyes at his tone. "But why am I getting special treatment? I'm not number one, and it's not like I've won any tournaments or anything. I didn't even win the one yesterday."

Ozpin's face seemed to become hardened before he spoke, "You may not have won, but what you did was far beyond impressive. It was incredibly reckless, but it paid off in the end. I need hunters who can make quick decisions like the one you made."

"I...didn't exactly make a decision." Alexei said quietly.

In response, the Headmaster's eyebrows raised. "How so?"

Alexei eyes moved down to stare at his cast along with his bedsheets. After a silence that Ozpin made no attempt to break, Alexei spoke, "I just got angry. So angry that the only thing I could think about was how much I wanted to break something. I guess Aaden's shield just happened to be the thing I latched on to."

Ozpin shared a look with Professor Goodwitch. He began to speak again, "That doesn't make what you accomplished any less remarkable. You destroyed Aaden Selah's shield through sheer will alone. This brings me to another thing, your semblance is still currently unknown, is it not?"

"No," said Alexei. "I mean, yeah. I don't know what it is. It hasn't come out yet."

"Did anyone tell you that before you charged Mr. Selah, your aura increased?" Glynda was the one who spoke, catching Alexei by surprise.

"Uh, I- no. The only person I've talked to was the doctor."

"Well, it could have been any number of reasons." Ozpin said. "In some rare instances, some people have been able to increase their aura through sheer will alone. I have never seen anyone raise their aura as much as you had during your fight, however, doing so usually causes extreme amounts of stress on their body. It's possible that it could have been the result of a semblance." Alexei kept quiet, giving Ozpin an opening to talk. "As all semblances are unique, with some possibilities of similarity, it is nearly impossible to tell if this is true. Do you know the semblances of any family members?"

Alexei shook his head. "My father's a third generation immigrant. His family comes from a small town north of Atlas. His grandmother moved here after his grandfather's death. She went back a long time ago. Both of his parents died before I was born. My mom's family has had a couple of military veterans, but no hunters. None of them even unlocked their aura. So as far as I know, I'm the first person in my family to even apply as a hunter."

"I see." Ozpin sipped from his mug. After a gulp, he rested the mug on the nightstand. "So there is nothing to compare to. Why did you want to become a hunter when no one in your family ever felt any desire to do so? I could understand the military if you've had some relatives there, but why steer so off course from your kin?"

More silence pierced the almost one-sided conversation. By the look on Professor Goodwitch's face, the slowness of his responses were grating on her patience. He took in a breath and opened his mouth. "Originally I did plan on going into the military. I was going into classes that focused on training future special forces operatives, but I guess my interests just...changed."

"Did the idea of fighting monsters interest you more than fighting people?" Ozpin's wording was ambiguous, but it made Alexei think that he didn't think much of the Valean army.

"I don't think I was ever really interested in either, it just kind of...stuck. After primary school I looked for whatever I could that would work as a career. I guess that the military just made sense, and then it didn't...I guess."

"You don't seem very sure about your own reasons." Ozpin observed aloud.

"Well, nobody really told me to stop. My mom was always told me she would prefer it if went into something safer, like business, but she said she'd support me either way. My dad never offered his opinion, like always. Some of my uncles and cousins encouraged me. I told mom that if I didn't like it at Signal then I'd enroll at a trade school or something, but it turned out that I really like taking hunter classes."

"I assume that the companionship you felt with some friends had to influence that as well."

"Yeah, I made a few friends."

"Do you spend much time with them?" Ozpin reclined as he asked this.

' _What's with all the questions?'_ , Alexei wondered in his head. He spoke after eyeing the Professor carefully, "Not really, I only talk to them during school. Well, I've hung out with Yang and Ruby before, but that was usually when I was going with them to Professor Qrow's workshop to design my own weapon."

"I thought your weapon looked like something he would design. I haven't seen many rifle-axe hybrids." Ozpin said.

"I just thought that it would be the best fit for me. Nothing else really felt right. I considered a hammer for awhile, but after Qrow weighed in, I agreed with him. Do you know him or something?"

Ozpin's eyes narrowed for a brief second. They returned to normal once he spoke again, "Qrow and I have known each other for quite a few years by now. I'll ask one more thing of you today, do you have any academies in mind?"

"I've thought about it a bit."

"Well, your finals are coming up soon. After graduation you'll no doubt be getting a lot of calls if you haven't already. While I would like to say that I didn't come here with the intention of recruiting you, I would be lying. Beacon always has the need for more huntsman and huntresses, and I think you'll be a remarkable addition to our school." Ozpin's face remained neutral, despite his friendly words.

"Why all the special treatment?" Alexei asked. "I get it. I'm number four. I broke a guy's shield during a match either through sheer dumb luck, or just my anger and stubbornness taking over all of my sense and reason. Half of the people in the top ten could have done it, hell, Aaden won the duel. Why aren't you talking to him right now? Why are you meeting me in person? This is something that you could've done over the phone. Aren't you the headmaster of a very busy academy?"

The two professors shared a short look together. Glynda looked back to Alexei first and spoke, "Are you turning the headmaster's offer down then?"

Alexei rubbed at his forehead. "No, I don't know. Can I think on it?"

"Of course." said Ozpin. "Take as much time as is necessary, but don't forget that you do have a deadline." he used his cane to push himself up to his feet. "I often meet students in person when enrolling them into Beacon. I find it far more interesting to do rather than through a phone or scroll. As for why I am so interested in you that I would spend money and time on you, that would be because I feel as though there is something special about you, Alexei. I do not yet know what that is, but I feel as though you could grow to become a great huntsman someday, and perhaps you could even become a professor. I looked at your grades. You do very well in literature and history. Over all, you do fairly well in subjects that aren't math and science. It's always good to be proficient at more than just combat."

Alexei remained silent. His eyes traveled to the view outside the window. Ozpin spoke once again, "In other words, I may have need of you, Alexei. The people of Vale and maybe even the whole of Remnant may as well. The world will always need good monster slayers as long as there are monsters. I suspect it shouldn't be too hard to contact me once you've made your decision. Until we meet again."

The silver-haired man walked out. His blonde assistant gave Alexei a nod as she followed him out. As Ozpin walked out, a red cloak bumped into him. "I'm sorry!" the headmaster smiled and nodded before he continued to walk on. The red cloak faced the door fully, revealing Ruby to Alexei. The fourteen year old turned into a flash of red as a force hit his chest and two arms wrapped around him.

"Ruby!" he exclaimed, followed by a groan of pain. A flash of yellow followed behind as another pair of arms wrapped around both of them at once.

"We were so worried." Yang muttered. "I don't think I've ever seen you get hurt that bad."

"Yeah, the last time was Yang's freshman year. Wasn't it?" Ruby asked her sister. Alexei had felt his face heat up when both girls had hugged him, but he felt like his face could cook an egg once he realized what part of Yang's body his right arm was firmly squashed against.

"Yeah, he had pushed himself too hard on a training program we were both working on and broke his leg." Alexei could remember the day.

"Girls, I'm touched and everything, but my chest is still a little sore." he said with a nervous laugh. Both girls retracted themselves from him. "I know that I'm a little hole-ier than usual, but there's no need to treat me any different."

Ruby groaned as Yang shook her head while she spoke, "You're horrible. Not only was that not even good, now really isn't the time."

"Oh come on." Alexei said. "You shouldn't worry so much. It'll leave lines on your face." he tried to sit up to prove his point, but winced while doing so.

"You don't look so good to me." Ruby said with doubt in her voice.

"You really don't have to act so tough." Yang said.

"No, I'm just this tough." Alexei said with a forced smile.

"If you say so…" Yang's voice trailed off.

Alexei looked at the two of them. Ruby was holding a few balloons by their strings. Some had the phrase, 'Get Well Soon', while the rest had yellow smiley faces. Yang held a bouquet of yellow flowers that had become bent in the group hug. Ruby opened her mouth to speak first after the silence, "Hey, Alex, who were those two that were in here before us?"

"The headmaster from Beacon and his headmistress."

Both girls stopped and gave him a look. "That was Headmaster Ozpin?!" Ruby squealed.

"Yeah."

"And he was visiting you? Why?" Ruby let her balloons go to bounce on the ceiling as she raced back to be directly in front of him again. "Are you getting accepted into Beacon?! Why aren't you more excited?! Did you put in a good word for me?!"

Yang grabbed Ruby to hold her back as Alexei moved as far back against the back of the bed as he could. "Sis, calm down. He kind of doesn't need you to freak out all over him right now."

"Okay, sorry, Alex." Ruby pouted as Yang let go of her. The two sat next to each other in the chairs on the bed's left side. Both girls seemed to notice his cast by now and looked at it with worried eyes.

"So, why did you guys come?" Alexei asked, trying to find a position that was comfortable and not awkward on his injuries.

"We were worried! We came as soon as school got out today. We would've come yesterday but they said that they were accepting immediate family only." Yang exclaimed. "A lot of us were worried. You had a _sword stuck inside your chest_."

"Is it so bad that we just want to visit a friend in the hospital?" Ruby asked.

"It's fine." guilt began to wash over him.

"So, why was the Beacon headmaster here anyways?" Yang asked after an awkward moment of silence.

"He wanted to see if I was interested in going to Beacon." Alexei said.

"And what did you say?" both sisters asked at once.

"Well…"

"Oh my god did you say no?!" Ruby yelled, surprised. "Let me get this straight, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, one of the most prestigious hunter academies in all of Remnant, shows up to your hospital room, hands you an enrollment on a silver platter, and you said no?!"

"Well...no, I didn't give him an answer, I just asked him for more time to decide." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I have to agree with Ruby on this one, Alex." Yang got up to stand by her sister. "That's kind of crazy. Anybody else would have said yes, don't you want to be a Hunter?"

"Well...yeah, I think." Alexei scratched at the side of his head, nervous at both the turn of the conversation and the proximity of the two girls.

"Jeez, what're we going to do with you, Alex?" Yang shook her head as the rhetorical question left her mouth.

"Tell me when you know, cause I sure as hell don't." he said. After a pause, he changed the subject. "So how was school today for you two?"

The conversation mostly turned into small talk. Alexei learned that Aaden had asked about him as well. Neither Amanda nor Marcus had asked them about him, for different reasons. Aaden had managed to get his rapier back after it had been successfully removed from Alexei's chest. He had mentioned to Yang though that he had been thinking about getting a replacement, seeing as how that one had been inside the ribcage of a friend. Both girls mentioned that there had been an intercom announcement giving the entire school an update on his status. Of course he hadn't woken up by that point, so the announcement merely said that he was a stable condition and healing faster than expected.

"You've always healed pretty fast." Ruby said. "Think it's your semblance?"

"No." said Alexei. "At least I don't think it is. People keep telling me I have a lot of aura, plus, you know, the machines here do more than monitor my heart rate." He gestured around him at the metal contraptions, smiling thinly.

"I guess that makes sense." Ruby said quietly.

Yang pulled out her scroll after it gave two short vibrations, "It's a message from dad. He says that he just finished up at school."

"I guess we should go then." Ruby said with a low, sad tone and a pout on her face.

"Yeah, actually, can I talk with Alexei for a minute alone again, sis?" Yang shifted in her seat to put her scroll back into her pocket after she gave her father a response.

"Sure, I can wait." Ruby walked out of the room, giving Alexei a gentler hug than the one she had made on her entrance.

Once her sister had left the room and closed the door, Yang turned back to Alexei. "What's with you?"

"Huh?" Alexei made eye contact with her. He couldn't understand the look she was giving him.

"I mean a lot of things. Alex, we've known each other for three years now and I still don't feel like I know nearly as much about you as you do about me." She seemed mildly upset at this fact.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly, averting his gaze from her entirely.

"Why are you sorry?" She asked, partially comfortingly and partially accusingly.

"I just am, I guess." ' _Because I want to tell you.'_

Yang sighed. "Alex, you just got offered a place at one of the most well-known hunter academies in the world. Why didn't you accept it immediately?"

"I don't know." he shifted uncomfortably in his bed, looking away from her. ' _Because I'm scared to make the decision.'_

"Can you please just answer me? I know that there's more to it than that." Yang rubbed the side of her head, messing with her hair a little. "Why do you always do this every time I try to figure you out?"

"Yang, I...can we not talk about this?" ' _Because I don't know how to be close to someone.'_

"Why?" she moved to sit on the bed and put her hand on his left one. Instinctively, he flinched back, recoiling from her touch. "What's wrong? Don't you trust me?"

"I...Yang I should probably be getting some sleep." he made eye contact with her again. "I need to heal up quickly so that I can get back to class and take my finals. Plus you're keeping your dad and sister waiting." he added on a false smile to help it feel more believable _. 'I don't know how to trust anyone, Yang, just give up.'_

Yang looked away. She made a sound that was half harsh breath, half bitter laugh. "Fine. If that's the way you want to be. You've got my scroll number if you ever want to actually fucking talk to me. I think you should take the headmaster's offer. Me and Ruby are both planning on going to Beacon. So is just about everyone else. It'll be fun." Yang rose to her feet. "I'll see you at school then."

Alexei watched as she walked out of the door. He closed his eyes. "Wait." he said, outstretching his good arm while doing so. After a full minute of silence he opened his eyes to see that the door was closed. ' _Figures. Good going. Just wait until she's gone, dumb-ass. Doesn't matter anyways. I don't really matter.'_

His thoughts continued on until he tried to watch more television to stop thinking. After he had eaten the dinner they had brought him, it took hours until he finally grew tired from staring at the television screen. His eyes closed on their own and he fell asleep, as uncertain as ever about his future.

* * *

 **Veterans of my original fic will know that I'm somewhat update challenged. I'd love to say that I can update within a certain timeframe, but I just can't. This story will be continued, but updates will happen randomly. They may not be as long as this chapter either, I like making long chapters, but this one is thirteen-thousand words, which is almost overkill.**

 **Anyways, I'm much more proud of this first chapter than I was of the first chapter of Gray Death, which spent more time introducing Alexei's semblance than Alexei himself. So for now, nothing will be said on his semblance. Those of you who have read the original, please be kind enough to leave any spoilers out of any reviews you may leave.**

 **Special shout out to Twisted Fate MK 2, who acted as my beta for this chapter. They helped out a lot and added quite a few small details that I think really fine-tuned this chapter.**

 **I also just have to recommend a youtube channel named Chicka. She makes a lot of action-packed RWBY AMVs that are honestly some of the most well edited AMVs that I've ever seen. Watching a few can really help if I can't seem to focus my thoughts on RWBY.**

 **I'll stop rambling now and sign off. To old readers, I hope this version of the story has started off more enjoyably and less bumpy than the last, and to new readers, I hope you enjoyed it enough to stick around like the rest have. I'll hopefully see all of you again soon.**


	2. Chapter Two: Path

For another three days Alexei was in the hospital. Marcus and Aaden both came to visit him once. Aaden looked guilty while Marcus and Alexei tried to keep things light. None of them really felt like addressing what had happened in the arena yet. The few times that Alexei did so, he turned it into a self-deprecating joke fairly quickly, which would make Marcus laugh and Aaden shift uncomfortably. When the two had gotten up to leave, Aaden had turned to Alexei as though he had meant to say something, but then decided against it.

Yang and Ruby visited him all three days after school. He found it strange. While he had hung out with them before, it was rarely more than once a week. Each time Yang tried to get him to talk to her alone, but each time he managed to avoid it. Twice it was by provoking Ruby into a long conversation on weapons and different handling methods that could benefit Alexei. She mentioned that her and her uncle were working on a new modification to Gray Death, which, as she said, they might as well have. His maneuver in his match had done more than ruin the stock. The moving parts that extended the stock to turn it into an axe head were broken. The barrel had been bent ever so slightly due to the strain. Even the receiver had been damaged when the handhold above it had bent inwards.

During their last visit, Yang had managed to get Ruby out of the room, but Alexei fought back by turning the conversation around on her every time she tried to get through to him until she left in frustration, slamming the door shut as she went. The guilt growing inside him told him that this decision was stupid, and that he was an idiot. His fear told him otherwise.

His mother visited once. During her time she asked him multiple times whether or not he was okay, throwing in the occasional sentence that told him she didn't like his decision to be a hunter, though she never stated it directly. She explained that she had had a few dreams in which she relived the match and watched him get impaled again and again. He felt more guilt.

On the last day, his mother had managed to drag his father with her to help with getting Alexei out of the hospital. The ride out of the hospital had been like the last few days after his surprise visit from the headmaster: uneventful, until they had decided to stop at Alexei's favorite restaurant on the way. Once he was home, his mother went over the medication he had to take. The first was a pain pill. It only provided a little more comfort than anything that could be bought over the counter and was only for his first week out of the hospital. The second was an aura booster, something considered highly illegal without a prescription. The final pill would help make sure that his aura was focused entirely on healing. With the three combined, it was expected for him to be back to normal within three weeks, at the cost of some drowsiness.

The doctor gave him a note saying that he would be off of school for Friday, meaning that his injury had cost him a full week of school at that point. He wasn't sure what he felt about that. He spent Friday evening in his room. Normally he tried to spend time after class in the school gym. When at home he spent the majority of his time on his computer. His time that night was divided amongst playing video games as well as watching videos online. Whatever he could do to avoid thinking. Yang had been messaging him. He responded each time. Occasionally he would receive one or two from others, but it was rare.

After he finished watching another video on old Valean tactics for war he noticed that it was four in the morning, and decided to finally get ready for bed, skipping his shower, and going to sleep. His next day was similar. The day after that was the exact same as well, except that he went to bed earlier so that he could get up for school the next day. That didn't mean that he wasn't on his scroll until he fell asleep.

When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was the scroll still on his chest and the earphones that were still in his ears. The alarm clock and it's annoying barrage of ever-loudening electronic boops were the second thing he noticed. After throwing himself to his feet and attempting three times to stop the alarm and finally succeeding, he stumbled and flung himself back on his bed, the scroll still connected to him by his earphones.

He awoke again to his mother yelling at him from the kitchen. Alexei got up, instinctively trying to use his right arm, causing pain to shoot throughout it as he tried moving it inside the cast. No longer did sleep bother him.

After stumbling out into the hallway and into the kitchen, he grabbed his plate of food and began to eat. His mother always tried to keep breakfast varied, but the end product almost always involved eggs and toast in some fashion. This time it was two eggs done over-easy in between two slices of toasted wheat bread with cheese and sausage. He drank a cup of milk alongside it and ate a banana afterwards.

After an argument on whether or not he could drive himself, (which he lost, but had stubbornly won anyways) Alexei drove to Signal and parked in his usual spot. Luckily, he usually used his left arm for lifting his duffle bag around anyways. Though he was completely ignoring his doctor's advice to avoid heavy lifting for the next few weeks. In fact, the only intelligent thought in his stubborn head on the walk to his first class was, ' _This hurts like shit.'_ The pain carried over into his chest, as his mostly healed stab wound began to ache.

The walk to his class seemed to last far longer than usual. The students all watched him, occasionally whispering to each other. It had to be more than just his injuries, after all, being a combat school, it was fairly common to see a small fraction of the students wearing some form of bandage or another at Signal. No doubt they were talking about his match. Those who hadn't seen it personally were probably already informed about it by their friends who had.

Finally, he arrived at Professor Night's history class. The man was a half foot taller than Alexei and possibly one of the most overweight people he knew. He stood in front of the door watching out for students as they came in, occasionally talking to the professor standing next door. When he saw Alexei walking in he spoke.

"Heard about your match. From what I heard I'm sad to have missed it. Never would have guessed you had that in you, but the quiet ones are always the craziest. Don't worry about any make-up work. You don't really do your assignments anyways despite getting good grades on your tests." Out of all the witty responses Alexei could have given his favorite professor, he just gave a grunt and a nod in response. He took his usual seat, at the back of the room. The seats around him were mostly empty, the few students in the room at that point were seated away from him.

The room slowly began to fill with his classmates, a few sat near him, but didn't acknowledge him. Eventually, Professor Night closed the door and walked into the room before sitting down roughly in his swivel chair. "Right!" he exclaimed. "Those of you who actually did your homework, go ahead and pass it forward to the front row. Those that didn't, well, just go ahead and pass the other peoples' homework forward like you always do."

Class with Professor Night went much the same way as it always did. Alexei and the rest of the class listened to their instructor as he read the notes on overhead projector. Some of the class listened. The rest frantically copied down the words on the screen that the projector illuminated. Professor Night was the only professor that Alexei knew of who still used the old piece of equipment. The professor himself was one of the oldest instructors in the whole school. That combined with how out of shape he was made Alexei worry that he could suffer a heart attack at any time.

Alexei's thoughts ceased as Professor Night stopped suddenly in the middle of his lecture. The professor was looking at a girl who was on her scroll. She held the device behind her books in an attempt to hide it. Professor Night scooted around his desk in his swivel chair and stopped beside her. His infamous whacking tool, a roll of several old calendars all rolled up and duct taped multiple times, was in his hand. The poor girl slowly looked up to realise that the professor was next to her, staring at her while the class did the same.

She opened her mouth to speak, "Hi Professor Ni-"

"Chloe!" he yelled suddenly. The girl flinched before breaking into a somewhat nervous giggle, most of the class joined her. The professor rolled back towards his overhead projector to look back at the notes he had placed there.

"As I was saying, the island of Patch wasn't settled until decades after the main city was established with a solid series of walls for protection. A family of hunters got the bright idea that it would be far more sensible to inhabit an island. Something far easier to defend than a large area connected to a continent teeming with the damn Grimm. Now, tell me what was the name of the family that first came to our delightful little slice of Remnant? Ciara, care to give us the answer?" he yelled similarly to how he had before, causing the tan-skinned girl two seats in front of Alexei to jump. She had been in the middle of copying down the notes on screen.

"Uh..." she sat still with a blank expression on her face. Alexei had never understood why the girl was so popular with both students and teachers. As far as he was concerned, the only reason she had good grades was because she studied religiously, and she got on his nerves often.

"Oh come on dear, it's not this difficult." One of the reasons Professor Night was Alexei's favorite was because he rarely played favorites. He teased and mocked everyone equally, but Alexei never thought it was out of any actual spite.

"They were the Patch family." Alexei spoke, though it took a few seconds for the words to actually leave his mouth.

"Yes." said Professor Night. "They came here and almost single handedly wiped out all of the grimm. The four brothers and three sisters all helped their parents settle this island. When they grew too old, got injured, or just got tired of fighting, they'd settle down and go into construction or real estate. They had a monopoly on both seeing as how they and a few friends were the only ones on the island. Needless to say, they became filthy rich."

"Professor?" one girl with light brown hair raised her hand.

"Yes, Hazel?"

"Were you a hunter?"

The class was silent. Alexei himself was curious for an answer, however, it was hard to believe that a man in such poor health as Professor Night could ever do anything as physically exhausting as combat. "No." the professor said finally, "I wasn't."

"Why do you teach at a combat school then?" asked a muscular boy named Orville.

"Because the pay's good." Professor Night's response was quick and half of the class laughed at it. Once it had become quiet again the professor began to stare at the floor and rock back and forth lightly in his chair. "No, I wasn't a hunter. Oh I wanted to be, almost any boy and girl wants to be when they're a kid. I was a paramedic when I was younger. None of you would recognize my older pictures. I used to lift weights a lot. The pay was great, but the work…" his eyes drifted around the room, looking between the ceiling, the two shelves of old history books at the back right of the room, (where Alexei sat) and the door. "It could be pretty stressful. I saw some pretty awful things. The body is very fragile without aura. As I'm sure our resident voluntary mute, Alexei, understands fairly well by now. Unlike the majority of you, I never got mine unlocked. There was never a need to."

"What was the worst thing you had to do?" asked Orville again. Alexei thought the question was rude to ask, but he shared the same morbid curiosity.

"There's so much to pick from." he said. "I got shot at a few times. I saw people with their bodies broken into pieces. I had to help move hunters a few times when there was a breach in Vale or here on Patch. That was some of the worst. Grimm are monsters, and that showed then. We didn't always get every part of the hunter we were trying to rescue. Most don't survive wounds like that, fewer still do so intact. In spite of it all though, I enjoyed the job. I knew what I was doing was good and that I was helping."

"Why did you quit?" Ciara asked, somewhat quietly.

"Well," he began with a heavy sigh. "I got hurt. One day, I was driving home from work at the hospital. I saw a kid, a little girl lying in the middle of the road, not the sidewalk, the actual road. She was still breathing. I got out of my car to check on her. I could see as I got closer that she was hurt. Soon enough, another car came down the road. They had to be going over a hundred miles an hour, the dust engine sounded like it was pushing way past its limit.

"I don't know what I was thinking. Before I knew it, I was on the other side of the road were the kid had been with her in my arms. The next second, the car, despite having tried its best to slow down, still hit me. I went flying with the kid in my arms. I managed to twist in the air so that I'd take most of the damage. Keep in mind, this was a hot summer night and I was far younger and much better looking, so I was wearing a muscle shirt and shorts. Have any of you ever gotten road rash before?" Two boys in the class raised their hands. "Good. Now what I got was third degree road rash. It's similar to a third degree burn. I skidded across the ground with this kid in my arms and lost a lot of skin on both my left arm and leg."

Most of the class winced or groaned at the thought. Even Alexei, despite his current injuries, couldn't imagine how painful it must have been. "How did you survive?" Orville asked again.

"Well, me and the girl were lucky that the guy that had just run us over was nice enough to stuff us into his already full car. He drove us back to the hospital I worked at. The place was already packed with people who had been attacked by Grimm, I learned later on that there was a small breach. The guy who hit me was driving his whole family away. I never saw the girl again. It took months for me to finally heal up. By then I'd lost my muscles and so I couldn't keep up with my job. My wife had already left me so I didn't really have anyone to help me around. I decided to pursue a career in teaching with a speciality towards social studies and here I am today. Letting my students derail my lecture by getting me horribly off-track." A few students, Alexei included, chuckled at the man's humor. The thought still lingered, however. Alexei realized how he had never truly thought on how much aura truly was necessary. Injuries like the one Professor Night had suffered were common among hunters, without his aura he would fare no better against a creature of Grimm than a highly trained soldier. "Regardless, we need to get back to the lesson at hand." Professor Night spoke before changing the notes on the projector, causing a few students to groan. "Oh come on. My dog copies faster!"

Alexei soon found himself wondering whether or not a failure in the hunter career would lead him down a similar path to Professor Night.

* * *

Once again Alexei found himself struggling not to fall asleep in statistics class. His teacher was standing at the whiteboard, marker in hand as she wrote a new equation on the board. Alexei fought hard to keep his eyelids separated. With his cheek resting on his arm, he lost the battle soon enough. His eyes finally closed all the way and he drifted off for a minute until he heard his name being called.

"Alexei?" Professor Dew looked at him over her shoulder. "Please try getting more sleep at home. You really need to start paying attention, especially this close to finals. You need to bring your grade up." Some of his fellow classmates laughed at what she said. He could never tell if the times she called out her students was an attempt to push them to do better, or for her own enjoyment. By her tone he could only guess both. Despite her attempts at getting him to work, he still had trouble paying attention and gave up on doing his homework in class.

* * *

For Introduction to Grimm Studies, Alexei made his way to his seat in the back to sit. Once he was fully seated, he turned to realize that there was someone standing next to him. The girl next to him was undeniably beautiful. Her skin was almost as pale as milk and her long blonde hair was tied into a braid that left it out of her eyes and ears. Her eyes weren't on him despite the fact that her body was facing him directly. While they were open, her pale blue eyes were staring at the wall next to him.

"Uh, hello?" his words came out as though they were unsure of themselves. He recognized the girl immediately by her face, she sat in the front row usually.

"Hello, I'm Avarna." the girl said, continuing to stare into the wall next to him. Without thinking, he slowly turned to look at the same spot, only to see a blank patch of wall. "It's a pleasure to meet you." she gave a small laugh, "There's nothing on that wall. I'm just blind."

Alexei felt embarrassment at the fact that he hadn't noticed that a girl who had been in his class the whole semester was without sight. Suddenly it dawned on him why he wouldn't have guessed it in the first place. "But you get around so well." he cupped a hand over his mouth. ' _That was fucking rude of me.'_

She gave another laugh at that. "Don't worry about offending me, I'm well aware of the fact that I'm blind and that I'm good at making it look like I'm not. After I got my aura unlocked I realized that I could focus on the aura of others to see the way they move. I can even project parts of my own aura to read my surroundings. I could tell by the way you walked that you were injured so that's how I knew who you were."

"Oh." Was all that Alexei could manage to get out, he took a few more seconds to think before he uttered his next words. "Not to be rude, but do you want something?"

The girl's expression turned into something between a pout and a frown. "Why can't I just be interested in making a new friend?"

"Why haven't you talked to me before then?"

The expression vanished, however, the smile didn't return as she responded. "Okay, you've got me there. I wanted to say something for Aaden."

"He couldn't say it himself?" Alexei mentally kicked himself again for how unfair he was being, but he found it hard to drop the harsh tone and words.

"He's a good guy but he's pretty bad about saying what's going on in his head."

"Really?" Alexei had never thought of the shining knight on any kind of personal level, so he had never imagined that the guy in the first place at Signal had any amount of insecurity. More importantly, Alexei wondered what he had to worry about hurting him over.

"Yeah, he might be first place, but he's human like the rest of us." she wore a small frown. "He told me last night that he saw something during your match that freaked him out, but that he wasn't allowed to say what it was. He usually tells me everything that's on his mind, so it must have been big."

The mention of how close the two were got gears turning in Alexei's mind. He had been trying to work out where he'd heard her name before, but he finally had it. "You're Avarna! Avarna Sato. You and Aaden are dating, aren't you?" his exclamation wasn't much louder than his normal quiet voice.

"Yep!" she said almost proudly, "That's kind of why I came over to you. Aaden talks about you sometimes so I decided it was time to finally get to know another one of my boyfriend's friends."

Alexei found it odd that her mood could change so quickly. He was sure that she was getting tired of talking with him. Then he registered what she had said. ' _Aaden talks about me?'_ He was clearly quiet for too long as Avarna's expression changed to one of confusion.

"Something wrong?" she asked. It would be difficult to get used to someone who didn't look him in the face when they spoke. It made it slightly unnerving, as her expressions were no different from a sighted person's, but the fact that those expressions were targeted at the wall instead of him made him feel as if she felt he was unimportant.

"It's nothing. I guess I was a bit surprised that he talked about me. We're not particularly good friends or anything."

"Well he seems to consider you one at least. You really sell yourself short. Come on, you've got to be some good if you're number four."

"I suppose. Though some people think the number four is a sign of bad luck."

Avarna's perfect posture was broken as her shoulders slumped slightly and she let out a small sigh. "You're really hard to get into a good mood, aren't you?"

"Sorry," said Alexei, "It's just been a rough week."

"I understand." she went back to her normal posture and put on a normal posture. "I think that class is about to start up, so I'm gonna make my way back to my seat. It was nice to meet you. Aaden can be pretty shy too, so if he acts like he doesn't want to be friends it's probably because he's not able to say so. It'd be great if you could be friends with our little group. Us top-tenners have to stick together after all. If you ever learn what it was that freaked my boyfriend out, be sure to let me know."

Aaden analyzed her words as he watched her leave, trying his best to not stare at a girl who was taken by someone he now considered a friend. ' _Us top-tenners?'_ He felt incredibly stupid after he finally remembered where he had recognized her face from other than the front of the class: the leaderboards. ' _Avarna Sato. Second place on the leaderboard. Extremely close range fighting style that involves targeting specific weak spots on her opponents.'_ He remembered the small bio he had read of her on the tournament handouts. He had missed her match however. It must have been interesting to see a blind person fight. Once the professor had entered the classroom he found himself distracted by his own thoughts too much to focus on the lesson.

* * *

Once Introduction to Grimm Studies had finished, Alexei made his way to the cafeteria for his lunch break. After picking out a chicken patty sandwich with fries and milk he made his way to a table off to the side from the rest. He began to appreciate that his right arm was broken in a location that still made it possible to use both hands, albeit with a great loss of mobility and comfort. With his destination reached, Alexei rested his tray on the cafeteria table's top and took the top bun off of his chicken patty to add mayonnaise. He put the top bun back on after he had finished, satisfied with the amount the condiment he had managed to put on. He felt the table move slightly as Marcus sat down with his own tray. Two sandwiches and twice the amount of fries that Alexei had gotten for himself. Marcus had also gotten himself chocolate milk instead of white, unlike Alexei.

Marcus nodded to Alexei and gave a greeting of, "What's up?", before putting his own condiments on his sandwiches. The two began to eat in what was a mostly un-awkward silence. Soon afterwards, the table moved once again as a second year named Irving sat next to Marcus. The two began talking as Alexei kept eating. A fourth person sat down next to Alexei. He didn't pay much attention to their conversation as he ate his meal. The other two boys were more Marcus' friends than his.

"Hey Alexei, has Aaden talked to you yet?" asked Marcus after he finished his last piece of food.

He looked up once his name was spoken. After he finished chewing, he swallowed his next bite of sandwich and spoke, "I haven't seen him yet today, why?"

"He was telling me that he was thinking about sharing a graduation party with his girlfriend and was going to invite us."

"I guess I could go. You know how I am at parties though." said Alexei before taking another bite.

"Come on man. How are you going to be a huntsman if you spend all of your time in your goddamn house?" Marcus spoke somewhat tiredly.

"I'm just not good at those kinds of things. They bore me."

"Last time you said it was because you hate crowds or some shit." Marcus tried to catch him in a lie once again, a game he liked to play at times.

"You caught me." Alexei deadpanned. "My parents were murdered by a crowd. Now I'm triggered at the mention of them."

"You make that 'triggered' joke way too often." said Marcus. "Seems like you're running out of jokes."

"Whatever, asshole." Alexei replied, smiling thinly in spite of himself.

"Damn dude, I just said there was going to be a party, you didn't have to be such a bitch about it. What's got your panties in such a bunch?"

"Oh I don't know, I doubt it's got anything to do with this cast, or the bandaged up stab wound, or my still aching shoulder."

"Just take a pain pill or some shit. They didn't give you any at the hospital?" Marcus asked, the edge in his voice dying down.

"I just...don't feel like I- I don't want to get addicted to them or something else fucking stupid like that." Alexei stumbled over his words a bit, being quick to stop what he was going to say and replace it with a sentence that was not the correct truth.

"Okay, okay. I get it, man." Marcus backed down. The conversations at the lunch table turned mostly mundane after that. There was some talk about the match Alexei had taken part in, but not much past that. Some was about any attractive girls that passed by their table. Throughout all of it, however, Alexei's mind kept wandering back to the real reason why he had chosen not to take his pain pills. While it was true that he didn't want to become a junkie, the truth was that Alexei had an entirely different reason for not taking the pain relief.

* * *

For weapon engineering class, Alexei mostly sat at his own workbench completely silent. Without a weapon, his first ten minutes in the class went unused. The classroom was unlike most in schools, but then again so were the majority of classes at any combat academy such as Signal. Students were talking loudly over the sounds of power tools and metalworking machines. Professor Qrow busily walked around the room, helping students with their weapons and maintenance. Some of the students were weapon geeks like Ruby, and had taken the class multiple times, others were like Alexei who took the class mainly because it was a strong recommendation for any student looking to go to a hunter academy. While a hunter could easily buy a weapon, it was generally recommended that they make their own weapon in order to form a closer bond with it. It was true that a hunter's weapon was just a tool of destruction like any other, but it was one that they would have to use for years or even decades to slay monsters.

Alexei personally thought that it was strange to have such a close connection with something that was only built to take life. Though that was a dilemma that constantly left him confused. Was it better to respect those that destroyed in the name of good? Or those that rebuilt from the aftermath? Or maybe both? Of course, Alexei considered himself to be paranoid. He always found it hard to believe that there was no way that they couldn't destroy the Creatures of Grimm at any time. There were teams of hunters all across Remnant who had kill counts into the hundreds of thousands, and yet they couldn't work together with the armies of the four kingdoms to take back entire sections of the map with relative ease?

He always thought that the most likely explanation was that there was simply not enough lien to fund such an operation. Every time he looked at the profits of any megacorporation such as the Grimoire Corporation, the Schnee Dust Company, or Winchester Firearms, however, he always had more thoughts on his mind. Did the wealthy prefer the current situation? Where the poor and middle classes were forced to hide inside of the walls of the kingdoms and were easy to manipulate? Perhaps it was far more lucrative for the population to constantly live in a state of unease. Perhaps breaches only occurred because the rich allowed it. It would explain why grimm showed up in places such as Patch. An island should have been an easy place to defend from an enemy who didn't have the intelligence required to build a means to travel across an ocean. He was torn from his thoughts when a bag hit his workbench with a solid thump. Alexei lifted his head from the wooden table to look up at a smiling Ruby.

"Hey, Alex? You doing okay? You don't look so good." she asked, her tone innocent as ever.

"I don't think people are supposed to look good five days after getting an entire rapier shoved through their chest." Alexei said with a low voice.

"Oh, ah. Sorry. Yeah, I guess that was pretty dumb of me to ask." Ruby rubbed the back of her head with a nervous laugh.

Alexei sighed. Ruby had a profound ability to accidentally make him feel guilty after being too snide with her. She had to be doing it on purpose. "No, I'm sorry Rubes. I really haven't been feeling good. I'm still in some pain, and I've bitten off a lot of people's heads today."

Ruby looked confused for a second before making a small noise of realization. "Oh it's an expression." she said so quietly in the loud room that Alexei barely heard her. He laughed lightly at her cluelessness before wincing slightly at the sudden movement in his still-healing lung. Ruby gave him a worried look before talking again. "But if you're in pain then aren't there some kind of painkillers you can take?"

"I'm allergic to most painkillers." he lied to her without thinking about it.

"Oh, that really sucks." Ruby said.

"So why were you late to class today?" Alexei asked, "You're usually here the earliest."

"Oh yeah, I forgot!" Ruby exclaimed. She turned to the bag she had set down on his table and unzipped it. Pulling open its flaps she unveiled Gray Death before unfolding it into its rifle mode.

"You fixed it already?" he asked as he looked at the weapon, noticing a fresh paint job and slightly different looking stock. The shape seemed less bulky than before. The end of the stock was curved instead of flat as it had been. "What's with the new stock design?"

"Well, I did more than just repair it."

"What's different about it now?" he asked as he picked up the rifle and turned it around in his hand, noticing that the rifle had been changed in more ways than one.

"Well, since you proved to my uncle and I that not even our best steel alloy was good enough, we whipped up a magnesium alloy for you. It's a lot lighter now and stronger. Honestly if this stuff can't hold up then you're going to have to think about taking it easier. That pushing match was cool and all, but it did a lot of damage to Gray Death, not to mention Aaden's Ruinous Reflection." Ruby had taken on a tone similar to a mother scolding a child as she usually did when telling him how to treat his weapon.

"I really just wanted to break his shield at the time. I wasn't really thinking." said Alexei, "There was no other way to do that other than just pumping as much aura into the push as I could. At least enough for the shield to be overloaded."

"Well there's another modification that I hope will help with that." Ruby raised her left index finger as she said this before pointing to the handhold above the rifle's upper receiver. "We also strengthened all of the grips on the weapon and added more grooves to make it easier to keep ahold of. Along with that, we also added a trigger on the handhold. It'll fire the rifle when it's in its axe mode."

Alexei found the trigger with relative ease. "And why would I want that?"

"Well," Ruby started. He always felt that if Ruby had glasses, these moments where she explained a weapon's functionality would be the perfect time to push them up the bridge of her nose. "I remembered that I read in some design manuals that one of the first techniques that hunters thought up when guns were first made and integrated with the current weapons at the time was to use the recoil to strengthen the swings. It really helped against bigger grimm with thicker armor and stronger bones. I figured that that could help you with some of the swings. They'd be stronger and faster. I set up a bunch of recoil compensators to make sure all the force would be directed towards the axe blades. You could even use more powerful rounds to make your hits even harder."

"Wow. Thanks Rubes." Alexei continued to look over the weapon with a close eye. "That should really help me out."

"It was nothing." Ruby said shyly. "I was thinking about using it in the design for a scythe I'm gonna build for myself."

Alexei looked up at her. "A scythe? Really? I mean sure they're unique and really cool looking, but their design is really impractical. The blade doesn't even face the enemy."

Ruby puffed her cheeks slightly. "Well it worked out for Uncle Qrow."

"Qrow was also an s-class hunter back in his day. You can go for it, but everything about a scythe just doesn't fit in on a battlefield. The blade is heavy and unwieldy, there's no balance on the whole thing, and not to mention the lack of good handholds."

"Okay, Alex, I get that old weapons are your forte and mine are modern ones, but I think I can come up with a design that doesn't have those problems." Ruby spoke with a confident tone that she didn't put on too often. He knew that when it came to firearms and high-tech weaponry she was always willing to debate someone. "I was going to make it so that the blade changes positions mid-swing so that it cuts better. I'm not stupid."

"Sorry Ruby. I should've known better than to question your weapon design. You helped me build this beauty after all." he paused to think about what he had said. "And by that I mean built the whole thing for me. Though I grateful for all the lessons on modern weaponry."

"It's nothing, really." Ruby seemed to be blushing. Something incredibly obvious on her pale cheeks. "I just really like weapons, and you've always been nice to Yang and I. You get along with my uncle too."

"I guess I am just perfect, huh?" he said with a joking smirk. "God, how am I still single? It even shocks me sometimes."

"You're such a jerk." Ruby giggled through her blush. She went silent, causing Alexei to stop talking as well. He had no idea what to say to the crimson-haired girl. She rubbed her arm as he was about to turn back to resting on the workbench. "Hey, Alex?"

"Yeah?" he turned back to her.

"Why did you go with the rifle-axe design?" her tone had gone back to the innocence from before, mixed with curiosity.

Alexei thought before giving an answer, "I guess it just fit me. I don't really know."

Ruby scrunched her eyebrows together as she took in his answer. "That answer really doesn't tell me anything."

Alexei looked her in the eyes. "I guess it really doesn't. The design fits me in a lot of ways. Ways that only I could really understand."

"Like what?" it became obvious that Ruby's curiosity was reaching a breaking point, but Alexei was always known for pushing things.

"It's a secret." he said with a coy smile.

"Oh come on!" she whined. "I can keep a secret. Tell me, please."

"Come now, Ruby. It's as they say, two people can keep a secret, but only if one of them is dead." Alexei held up two fingers and lowered one in display. "Besides, you're not fooling me. I know you'd turn right around and tell Yang the first chance you got."

"That is so not far." her cheeks puffed out again. Then she blinked and looked at Alexei, her silver eyes widened as she looked into his gray irises. She cocked her head slightly as she asked him another question, "Why wouldn't you want Yang to know?"

Alexei's eyes widened slightly. His eye contact broke with Ruby as he realized the hole he had just dug himself into. "No reason." His words can out uneasy. He took a breath and looked Ruby in the eye again. "I was just giving you a hard time."

He had to endure Ruby's scrutinizing gaze for a few seconds until she spoke indignantly. "You really are a jerk. I almost want to take back that nice thing I said about you earlier."

Alexei sighed silently, grateful that Ruby was as innocent and blissfully ignorant as possible. Their conversation after that went back to weapons, something that both could talk about with ease. Both prefered polearms or two-handed weapons over one-handed weapons. Alexei because of the extra power of both hands, and Ruby because of the extra room they allowed for a firearm to be incorporated into the design. It had always intrigued Alexei how the Ruby that talked to him about rifles, pistols, swords, axes, machine-guns, shotguns, and other man-made instruments of death was completely different from the shy, timid girl that Yang had introduced to him as her sister. Alexei usually shrugged it off, however, as he himself found it awkward to talk to another person if he didn't have a reason to talk to them other than to make conversation. He figured that he needed to stop questioning Ruby's shyness when he himself was just as guilty of the same thing half of the time.

* * *

Being someone who was generally drawn to stories, both historical and fictional, Alexei generally had trouble paying attention to anything related to math. Science was a different matter. Mathematics was a heavy part of science, so Alexei doubted he'd ever be very successful in the field, however there were many parts that he still enjoyed. Biology was one that interested Alexei, though his interest never carried much further than a desire to attempt to understand the basic causes and effects of nature. The science that interested Alexei the most, however, was psychology. The mind fascinated him. The class he was about to enter was a strange combination of the two. Metaphysiology was the study of aura, semblance, and the soul as well as their relationship with the body and mind. While there was proof for the existence of a soul, it was a widely argued topic in the science world on just what it was the soul _did_. Many believed that it was what gave humans and faunus their personality, ambitions, and desires. This majority usually believed that the soul came from some form of deity or deities, and that its existence was proof of theirs. Others argued that the mind was what gave faunus and mankind their thought, and that through experiences and struggles a personality could be built and formed along the way. This second group proposed that the soul simply powered life, and gave it the ability to produce aura.

Personally, Alexei agreed more with the latter group. It made more sense to him at least. Strangely enough, he felt that the only reason he hadn't taken the more religious approach to the debate was because his parents had answered every question he had had as a child, but he had never asked if there was anything beyond the world he lived in. He had still learned about religion due to the fact that his mother was religious despite not being particularly open about it. Alexei had no idea about his father, as he rarely had a meaningful conversation with him. So while he understood the concept of belief in a higher power, it wasn't something he himself ever believed in, even as a child. It was only when he started going to primary school that he met people who were far more open about their beliefs and typically expected an answer from him. It was then that he discovered he was different from most people. Scared of being bullied over something in addition to the torment he already received over his weight, Alexei lied to his classmates and said that he was just as religious as they were. He began using the same figures of speech that religious students used and even took to insulting any students who talked about any scientific ideas that contradicted any teachings of religion.

Despite these efforts, it only drove Alexei further away from others. In a twist of irony, he felt uncomfortable around his fellow students due to all the lying he had to do to fit in. As a result, he began to avoid most students, primarily those who talked about their religion the most. Though this was only one factor that led to Alexei turning into an outcast amongst his peers. His weight had been a major factor, as well as his lack of knowledge in sports and preference for for video games over outside activities. Eventually he began to bury himself in his indoor hobbies and distanced himself from other children. He rarely went to play dates or birthday parties and felt uncomfortable when made the center of attention for any reason at all. By the time he had begun to wish he had friends to spend time with, he found that it was already too difficult for him to understand how to talk to people. He brushed it off and ignored his feelings for years.

Alexei shook his head, a physical attempt to try and get his own thoughts back under control. As he usually did after long trains of thought that leapt from topic to topic, Alexei tried to remember how he had thought about his pointlessly tragic childhood. One that he was ashamed to describe as such. ' _Let's see. Childhood from religion. Before that was my own views, and before that was… science and metaphysiology. Probably because of the class I'm in.'_ Like all his other classes, Alexei sat towards the back in metaphysiology. Marcus sat next to him, talking to a few girls seated near them. Alexei yawned and tried to focus back on the classroom's front to take himself out of his thoughts. The front desk was empty. It looked like their instructor was going to be a few minutes late, as usual.

Alexei turned to Marcus. "Did I miss any assignments in here?"

Marcus continued talking to the girls, so Alexei jabbed his left hand into his friend's spine to get his attention. "Ah! The fuck man? Can I help you?"

"Yeah, sorry to play cockblocker, but I tried to ask your horny ass if I missed any assignments in here." Alexei's tone was deadpan as ever.

"No. I'm pretty sure he didn't give us anything to do. He doesn't give us much anyways." Marcus said. Once he was done talking he turned back to the girls again.

Professor Taiyang Xiao Long walked through the classroom door a few minutes late, just as Alexei had predicted. His boots thumped against the floor. Despite being much older than his students, as well as having a head of slowly graying blond hair, Professor Xiao Long was still considered remarkably attractive. Amongst the female student body, he had a few admirers. Of course, whether or not they were attracted in equal parts to his physical looks or the still recovering widower underneath, Alexei had no clue. Though for some reason, he felt as though the professor was eyeing him with a particularly sharp stare.

"Good to see that everyone is here. I guess it's time to start." he stood in front of the class and leaned against his desk. A posture that many of his colleagues would consider unprofessional. "The past few weeks we've been going over semblances. I'll give a quick recap.

"So far I've taught you that semblances are arranged into separate classes. At the bottom there's F. An F-class semblance isn't good for anything beyond a party trick. Lighting a candle, lifting light objects with your mind, or changing your eye or hair color. All of these have been observed and while they could be of some use in day to day life, they'd be worthless on a battlefield. A D-class is something that could prove useful in battle if applied correctly. C-class is undoubtedly useful. B-class could potentially make someone a great hunter. A-class is considered to be the best of the best. Something that could be used easily against a goliath or drake.

"Keep in mind that this rating system is applied to battles only. A semblance that would allow one to change their appearance completely wouldn't be very useful against a grimm, but it would make for a kickass spy. Another good thing to remember is that with enough effort, one can raise the rating of their aura through training and discipline. Many huntsman and huntresses were born with semblances originally rated at F, but managed to raise them to A through sheer will." Taiyang pushed off of his desk and walked back and forth at the front of the classroom. "Not everyone discovers their semblance. Of course those who unlock their aura never will, but even among those that do, there are a few who never discover themselves to possess any known power. Don't worry yourselves too much though, for some it can take years. Others discover theirs directly after unlocking their aura."

Alexei felt as though the professor kept looking at him the entire time after he had began moving around. The paranoia grew inside of him until he found himself staring at his instructor for any suspicious activity, but he found none.

"Now I know there's one subject that I haven't touched upon that some of you may have been curious about since we started class. While the rating system is considered mostly perfect, there is another class of semblances." Taiyang Xiao Long stopped his pacing and seemed to look directly at Alexei. "S-class semblances."

"You mean death semblances?" asked a girl towards the front.

"Yes." said the professor as he went back to leaning on his desk. "That's what they used to be called. It's a boring and uninspired way to refer to them, but people back then didn't have much to do other than make the population bigger and build more walls. S-class semblances are a special case and incredibly rare. They occur in less than point-zero-zero-zero-one percent of the population. They are usually more dangerous than A-class but come with a whole host of drawbacks.

"For one, the reason they were called death semblances is due to the fact that they caused a lot of death. S-class semblances are volatile, and impossible to control for the majority that use them. They will use up their user's aura and then go on to force the soul to produce more aura, putting intense strain on the body and potentially ripping their own soul to shreds if left unchecked. People with these kinds of powers are generally found to be emotionally or mentally unstable. The problem is, due to the rarity of the semblance and the fact that most who have it don't survive for long in life or go completely insane, there haven't been enough owners of S-class semblances to effectively study them. The reason I only set aside one day to discuss them is because there isn't much to discuss."

"We don't even know how many people have had one?" asked a boy a few rows in front of Alexei.

"Well, just about everyone who has had an S-class is well-known. Off the top of my head, I can name about three or four." Taiyang Xiao Long held up his hand and lifted a finger for each S-class user he named off. "Chandan, last name unknown. Born in Vacuo eighty years ago. As far as I can remember he supposedly grew up in a desert caravan. He could control extreme quantities of sand. At twenty-two he caused a breach when a massive amount of sand that he had unknowingly attracted to the wall overnight destroyed the structure. It was the second worst breech Vacuo experienced. Tens of thousands died. He went insane because of all the grief and exiled himself into the desert.

"There was one who had the ability to slow time to a near stand still. Atlas was going to use him as an assassin during the Great War, but he somehow reversed the ability on himself, making him permanently slowed down while he sees everything else as sped up. He's still alive actually, but only because his metabolism moves at a snail's pace. Nobody even remembers his name, and he can't communicate with anyone. Doctors can only guess his age range is somewhere in the mid twenties despite the fact that he has to be over a century old.

"A woman from Mistral had a lightning based semblance. She had to wear rubber at almost all times. They say she was going insane from the inability to touch anyone. She couldn't even bathe for extended periods of time. She died at twenty-six when she lost control of her semblance and her body heated up to the point that her skin charred off and her internal organs melted. Of course when she died like that she exploded into a one megaton electrical blast, frying her team and an entire forest of grimm. She even took out half of the electronics in Mistral.

"Another man who was born somewhere on Mantle outside of Atlas seemed to have complete control over his semblance. He had the ability to control earth, rock mostly. He went on a one man war against Atlas. After a few years and several breaches, they finally took him down. It took nearly all of Atlas' military, and as a result, he leveled a mountain in a ten-point-five earthquake as he died, killing thousands of soldiers.

"Of course that's not even counting all the cases of people dying simply because their semblance overrode their soul and tore it in half. There's only one with the semblance to this day, Vale's own Eren Tod of Team HRSE." some of the class nodded in response. "Eren is one of the few that seems to have complete control over it, which is pretty shocking. I've met him multiple times and he's unstable, psychotic, and unpredictable. Most of his past is classified. All I really know is that he was born and raised by faunus mercenaries code named, the Animals. His semblance is just plain horrifying. I've seen it in action. He can bend and morph his body in ways that aren't natural in any way."

"Why do you think they are the way they are?" asked another girl. "They don't sound bad, but their semblances sound horrible."

"I don't really have a clue." the professor stood up straight. "But I know that they can be incredibly dangerous. That doesn't mean they're evil. They're just people who got the short end of the stick. Ultimate power sounds great, but in the end it's not realistic to expect to live with it for very long. All of those people I mentioned were young when they died. People with this semblance are just like the rest of us, but the fact remains that they're dangerous."

"And nobody knows why they have these semblances?" asked the first girl.

"There are plenty of ideas, but in the end, nobody knows. I think that we may never know. Every person's semblance is unique, but many are known to be so similar that the only difference is how they're activated. All we know is that people with S-class semblances are incredibly dangerous, to themselves and to others."

Alexei still felt as though the instructor was talking to him directly, as though there was some fact that Alexei was made unaware of. He would spend the rest of class pondering his professor's words. Of the many conclusions that Alexei had reached, one of which was that it was possible that he himself had a Death Semblance, but he immediately decided that couldn't be the case. Something as rare as a Death Semblance would only happen to someone who was important, something that Alexei was not.

* * *

While Alexei had gotten Gray Death back from Ruby earlier in the day, he hadn't bothered to bring it to combat class, for obvious reasons. Class for him was going to involve no participation whatsoever. He sat down in the first row of the bleachers as his classmates began filing in. Unlike most other classes, hunter combat class was specifically for students looking to become hunters, as the name would suggest. This was due to the fact that fights were always one on one, unless the students were going through a training routine with the training bots. Combat classes for students looking to go into the Vale special forces generally involved techniques more suitable for men and women in squads and platoons rather than solo fighters or four man teams. Hunters were trained far more extensively. Alexei's classmates were filling in until the bleachers were filled with the entirety of the school's senior class. The large and imposing man, Beathan, stood in front of the bleachers with a clipboard in hand was taking attendance until the last student entered the doors. He was one of a very small few who taught at Signal without being a professor. He was also the only one who had no formal education, so little in fact, that he could barely read and write. Being a natural born knight of the minor Kingdom of Tyr meant that he was still more than qualified enough to teach at a school that trained warriors. Marcus and Aaden both sat next to Alexei, who took note that Aaden's girlfriend was sitting several rows over with some girls that appeared to be her friends.

"Right," came Beathan's voice from in front of them in his accent. "It appears as though that's everyone for today. The end of the school year is fast approaching, and many of you will will start your finals soon enough. In combat class, there will be no such thing. Instead, I'm just going to analyze your skills in some tournament style duels over the last two weeks of school. Of course if you're not going to be able to fight, like some of you who got the piss beat out of you in the tournament we had the weekend before last, you'll be exempt. I'll just have to grade you based on how you did there." Alexei immediately felt disheartened at that idea. Even if he had delivered the last blow, he had still lost against Aaden. His thoughts began to wander from there, wondering what he'd do if he didn't pass combat class, until he remembered that Headmaster Ozpin had already handed him a spot at Beacon.

"For our first match, I want," the instructor looked down at his clipboard and read off the two names. "Amanda Llinos, and Marcus Rohan. Go get your weapons and come back here."

Marcus looked at his two friends and stood up. "Why do they have to pair me up with the girls so often. Win or lose, people are gonna give me shit."

"Well, good luck." said Aaden. "Amanda might act and look meek, but she is number seven. I wouldn't underestimate her."

Marcus shrugged. "And I'm number three. Sure the top ten are really close in skill, but I think I can take her." he wore what most would assume was a cocky grin, but Alexei could tell that it was mostly an act.

Marcus turned and walked off the bleachers to retrieve his weapon. Alexei saw Amanda walking by and made eye contact with her for a split second before she looked away. She too walked to the locker room to get her weapon.

Aaden was quiet, leaving Alexei to stare down at the arena, thoughts of the fight he had there five days ago swirling through his head. The fighting area had already been fully repaired. Signal maintenance staff rivaled Beacon's, it appeared. Beathan read off more names, sending off a dozen or so more students to retrieve their weapons and prepare for a match.

"Alexei?" Aaden spoke. "Are you thinking about the fight too?"

"Kind of hard not to." he responded. "It was pretty fun."

"Your definition of fun is different from mine."

"That was sarcasm."

"Oh. Well, I still apologize for the stab wound." said Aaden with a regretful tone.

"I've lost count of how many times you've said that." Alexei said, annoyed. "It's not your fault. You attacked when you saw an opening so that you could get my aura down but I was using all of my aura offensively. You couldn't have known that."

"It wasn't like that." said the other boy.

"I mean I was the one with the rapier in my chest. I think I know how it was."

"No." Aaden turned to face him. "When you charged at me, something about you was different. It was frightening."

"I've been told that I can be scary when I'm angry."

Aaden sighed. "This isn't very easy to talk about, and you're not helping."

"Sorry." Alexei felt remorse for his constant teasing, especially against someone like Aaden.

"There was a lot of aura flashing between us, so it could be that my mind was playing tricks, but it appeared as though your eyes became a solid gray, and your teeth looked like that of a shark." Aaden said after a deep breath. "It horrified me. Your mouth was twisted into something I could barely call a smile. I stabbed you from behind my shield out of panic rather than strategy. At any moment beyond that I could have easily gotten out of the stalemate by backing away or moving my shield to send all of the built up energy anywhere else. After seeing you take that stab wound, however, I could hardly think. All I could do was fight back. You looked like a…" The silence that Aaden took was due to him cutting himself off.

"Like a what?" Alexei asked tentatively.

"Like a monster...with a human face."

Alexei sat quietly, digesting the information. "I didn't look that ugly, did I?"

There was a silence between the two. It lasted until some of the students sent out to retrieve their weapons began to return. Eventually Aaden finally responded, "Why are you joking about it?"

"I don't know." said Alexei. "Honestly, I think it's like what you said. There was a whole lot of aura flashing between us. It probably just made you see things that weren't there."

"You really think so?" Aaden asked sounding unsure.

"I doubt it was anything. Sure my aura raised, but people have done that before. I'm sure it's nothing." Alexei tried his best to be convincing. "Nothing to get worked up over at least."

"You're probably right." he looked out at the gym. "It looks like Marcus is back."

Their friend walked to the fighting area, the long chain of his kusarigama barely above the ground. He had changed into dark red cargo pants similar to the ones that Alexei wore for combat. On top of that he had a red muscle shirt with a yellow smiley face with a sinister grin across its face. His own boots were smaller than Alexei's and brown.

Marcus carried himself with confidence as he walked into the arena, he let the five pound ball hit the floor of the fighting area. It too was decorated with a smiley face exactly like the one on his shirt.

Amanda entered the arena as well. She had changed into the loose fitting pants and shirt that she wore for combat. Both were the same shade of deep green that contrasted with her long bright red hair. Her sleeves usually extended past her hands, but she had to roll them up to carry the double-headed ten foot long qiang spear in her hands. On her back was similarly long bundle secured tight by rope and covered by simple brown tarp.

She walked up to the fighting area much more meekly than Marcus, the green horse-hair tassels below each of the spear heads shaking with each nervous movement. Briefly, she made eye contact with Alexei, which both were quick to break. Once she was on the opposite side from Marcus, and all of the other students had settled back down, Beathan whistled loudly to attract everyone's attention.

"RIght, so this is our first match. Since there are a lot of you, I'm going to limit these to three minutes apiece. Aura in the red is still an out, so is a successful disarm. Are you prepared, Rohan?"

"Yes, sir, I am." he said, the smirk never leaving his face.

"And you, Llinos?"

"Yes, sir." Amanda replied in a quiet voice. Her hands wrapped tightly around her spear. One the weapon's heads rested on the ground.

"Alright then. When I say start, go at it. And try not to kill each other." Beathan crossed his huge arms and watched both of the teens closely. Amanda stood straight with her spear while Marcus held the scythe of his kusarigama at with his other hand wrapped around the chain. "Start!"

Marcus instantly yanked the chain so that the ball was in the air before he began spinning it. Amanda took a few steps backwards and leveled her spear at her opponent, her knees bent. Once Marcus had built up the ball's speed, he moved forward, aiming for Amanda's spear. She quickly moved the spear, it's shaft bending as she did so. With her opponent's front open, she thrusted forward with the qiang. The spear head came close, but was parried away by Marcus' scythe quickly enough. He attempted to bring down the chain to wrap around the spear, but Amanda quickly parried away the ball, changing the chain's direction entirely. For at least half a minute the battle continued on that way, with both attacking only to be parried or dodged. Amanda's spear appeared fragile in how it bent with each quick move, as did her movements, which looked almost like dancing to Alexei. Marcus on the other hand fought with more harsh movements. While the chain of his kusarigama was useful for disarming his opponents or otherwise render them unable to attack, each time he needed to change the ball's trajectory quickly he had to twist or jerk his arm in a way that looked extremely tiring.

Amanda brought around the spear from Marcus' right. He crouched to one knee in an instant and threw his chain again but aiming for Amanda's legs. The short girl jumped at least five feet to dodge the chain. She remained in the air and began spinning her spear with both hands, using both heads and making things difficult for Marcus, who was forced to go on the defensive. Amanda landed the first few hits of the match. Alexei could see the dark red of Marcus' aura flash each time one of the spear's two heads hit him. The spinning stopped as Amanda pointed her spear at Marcus and bolted towards him. Rolling away at the last second, Marcus barely avoided the attack. The qiang pierced the arena floor and Amanda allowed the spear to bend and used the leverage to pole vault herself further away where she stood at the ready.

Alexei swallowed and looked at his scroll. Barely over a minute had passed. Marcus leapt to his feet. Yanking on the chain, he caught the ball in his hand and threw it directly at Amanda who knocked it away with her spear. Using the opening to his advantage, Marcus ran forward, knocking away Amanda's qiang as she attempted to keep him at the spear's reach. She tried to back away as quickly as possible, but Marcus was moving faster. He reached his opponent and slashed not once, but three times at her, hitting her aura directly and getting in his first direct hits.

Amanda kicked him back successfully and slid back along the arena without using her feet. As she had been the one pushed back. Once far enough back, she thrust forward using her whole body. Marcus dodged to the side and quickly tried to close the distance again. Amanda responded by using the qiang to sweep Marcus' feet out from under him. She twisted the spear back and slammed the whole thing downwards, which Marcus barely avoided by rolling on his side. He flipped himself onto his feet and parried another of Amanda's attacks. The ball of his kusarigama was put to use once again as he swung it widely in an attempt to hit her directly. Ducking down, Amanda reached up and lightly touched the ball as it passed overhead. The effect became immediate and obvious.

Marcus' arm was nearly pulled from its socket as the ball immediately fell upwards towards the ceiling, carrying him with it. The full fifteen feet of chain along with the ball pulled him upwards, until the ball thumped against the ceiling, leaving him dangling from his chain by one hand while the other clutched at the scythe. He struggled and attempted to pull down the weighted end of the kusarigama, but instead wound up pulling himself up.

Several members of the student body laughed at his predicament, making him cease his struggling entirely. Amanda wore a small, satisfied smirk on her innocent face. Marcus held on tightly to his weapon, making sure that Amanda wouldn't win on a disarm technicality. He glared down at her, but when he saw her preparing to leap, his eyes widened.

The girl in green appeared to float upwards, and turned midair to land on the chain. Nearly the whole room gasped. Amanda was standing on the dangling chain as though it were solid ground. She was completely sideways to them, yet her hair hung down her shoulders rather than towards the ground as Alexei would have thought it would. The bundle on her back still held tight to her back. It seemed as though gravity had changed for her completely, and the thin chain was what her body seemed to accept as its source of gravity.

"Looks like she's really improved upon her semblance." said Aaden next to Alexei. "If she gets any better, I feel as though I may not be number one anymore."

Hanging from the end of the chain, Marcus was just as astonished as the crowd. Shaking off his shock however, he pulled himself up and swiped at Amanda's legs with his scythe. The attack collided with her aura, causing her to react by thrusting the spear directly into Marcus' chest, which his aura also blocked. The two traded hits there, both getting rapidly tired and losing their ability to effectively parry any attack the other made. The spear collided with Marcus' left arm, causing him to lose his grip on the chain completely. He hung by his right hand. With a flash of movement, he grabbed a tiny vile of dust, the color of which was impossible to see for Alexei, and crushed it in his hand.

With his now dust-filled hand, he grabbed the chain again. Soon enough, despite the thrusts of Amanda's spear, the kusarigama's chain began to glow red. Amanda jumped back down to the ground, landing gracefully on her feet. Marcus on the other hand flopped back down to the floor along with the five pound weight, which barely missed his head.

Marcus slowly rose to his feet, his breathing heavy and arms no doubt burning from holding his entire body weight for nearly forty seconds. The chain slowly burned into the arena floor, leaving scorch marks. Amanda watched her opponent carefully, holding off an attack in order to catch her breath.

With what seemed to be a very drained amount of energy, Marcus managed to get his chain spinning in the air. A humming began to sound throughout the arena. Amanda readied herself by keeping her knees and bent and spear prepared. Once Marcus was satisfied with the momentum he had built up, he moved in and tried to hit her, this time with the chain instead of the ball. She ducked down and thrusted at him. Dodging successfully, he brought the chain down, cutting off the first head of the spear.

Surprise filled Amanda's face, but with quick wits and reflexes, she managed to hit Marcus in the head with the now blunt end of the spear. Marcus was staggered but managed to bring around the chain again, cutting off more than four feet from the spear's shaft. Amanda brought back what remained of her spear and slashed at her opponent. He parried with the scythe and managed to cut off the spear's second head, turning it into a five foot staff. Amanda threw the remainder of the spear at Marcus as though it were a javelin. He responded by slicing it cleanly in half, down the center of the shaft, causing the remnants of the destroyed spear to miss him.

The green-clad girl stood with no weapon, and yet Beathan didn't call the match. Amanda grabbed the bundle on her back and in a quick and practiced motion, she undid the tightly-tied ropes and threw off the tarp. Twelve more spears tumbled out before being lifted up to float in the air a few feet above her.

The entire crowd stared in disbelief, Marcus as well. Right as Amanda went to grab a spear out of the floating mass above her, however, a buzzer sounded, causing both to stop dead in their tracks. Amanda's spears fell to the ground as Marcus let the weighted ball hit the floor as the chain's glow faded until it was non-existent.

"Quite the match." said Beathan, stepping forward into the arena. "With how you two look, I doubt either of you would have lasted much longer past that. Right, I'll evaluate you. Rohan, for some reason, perhaps overconfidence, you didn't use your semblance and stayed mostly predictable throughout that fight. Just because you're at a higher rank does not mean that she's not capable of kicking your arse."

Marcus gave no response to his instructor, instead he picked up the ball and began to wrap up the chain. Beathan gave a shrug and turned to Amanda instead, who had gathered up her spears and started to wrap them up in her tarp. "Llinos, you've really improved since last time. I'm happy to see you found a way to control the extra spears. I would have loved to see how you handled all of those things, too bad we ran out of time. If I had to call a winner, I'd say you came closer than Rohan. You appeared to get more hits in. Right, now both of you get out of the arena, and clean up those extra bits of broken spear on your way out. Next two!" the man shouted as Amanda carried out the task she had been assigned.

Alexei watched on as Marcus walked straight for the door, to clean up or pout over his technical loss he had no real clue. Amanda finished tying her spears together and strapped the bundle back onto her back and gathered up her broken spear. She too walked to the door, turning back and making eye contact with Alexei on the way out. For once, she looked proud of herself. Of course due to being distracted she forgot to adjust her bundle of spears, meaning that she hit them on the doorframe and had to wave her arms to regain her balance. The pieces of her spear came tumbling out of her hands and onto the ground where she hurriedly bent down to collect them and run out through as quickly as possible.

"She's rather...quirky." Aaden observed.

"She's just shy." Alexei countered. "I don't think she spends much time around other people."

"Perhaps." his friend responded.

"With how dry you are I'm shocked you managed to get a girl like Avarna to date you."

Aaden immediately broke eye contact at the mention of his significant other. "Yes, well, I wasn't exactly the one who started things between us. Opposites attract, or so they say."

Alexei gave a light laugh. "Yeah. I guess opposites do attract."

The rest of the class nearly bored Alexei to sleep, in fact he fell asleep at least twice. None of the matches afterwards were nearly as exciting, after all, Marcus and Amanda's match was the only one that day between two of the top ten. The rest nearly appeared amateur in comparison.

Only one train of thought ran through his head. ' _Opposites attract.'_ If that was the case, then who was Alexei's opposite? He eventually decided that he knew so little about his own character that it was impossible to figure out. Besides, he was seventeen and had no experience with girls (or guys for that matter, though he had become quite sure of his own sexuality after many years of gym class and locker room experiences) and had reached a point where he was nearly convinced that if any girls ever did become interested in him, (which he doubted) he'd probably find some way to fuck it up for himself. He always did.

* * *

In the gym, Alexei sat on a bench. He had changed into a t-shirt and comfortable pants as he often did for a visit to the gym. Normally, he'd be exercising, but he wasn't sure how to go about doing so with his dominant hand in a cast and his other being attached to an arm that wasn't supposed to get too much strenuous use. His eyes wandered over the empty room. It was almost always deserted after classes were over. It, along with other buildings on campus, were allowed for students to access after classes were finished and he chose this time to work on keeping himself in shape. Exercise wasn't something he did nearly as strictly as some of his friends. He just stuck to things that would help his training and rarely did anything else. He had been overweight through most of his life but had started losing weight to meet the body requirements for application at Signal. When he had first arrived at Signal, he still wasn't much to look at. Once he had met Ruby and Qrow through Yang and had Gray Death made, he had begun to train and gain enough muscle to effectively wield the rifle-axe hybrid. His muscles weren't something he was particularly proud of. They weren't really something he wanted, so much as needed.

Alexei stared down at his usable left hand and considered what he could do with it. The door to the empty gym opening caught his attention.

Yang strode in, her golden hair swaying with her footsteps as usual. It almost seemed to shine in the artificial light given off by the ceiling lights. She wore the orange tank top with the flaming heart emblem and black short shorts that were far shorter than what the dress code allowed for. Alexei realized he was staring and moved his eyes back to her face, which was currently in a concerned expression that he rarely saw on her.

"You sure you should be hitting the weights right now, Alex?" she asked, her eyes studying him.

"Well, none of my exams worry me too much. I don't study much anyways." he replied, his tone mostly sarcastic.

"You know I'm not talking about exams." Yang rolled her eyes and sat down next to Alexei. Her closeness made him shift away naturally, which he wasn't sure if he noticed or not. "I honestly don't think you know how worried we were. None of us want to see you get hurt."

"I'm fine Yang, I don't need you to baby me over this. If I wanted that I'd be home right now." Alexei said, irritated.

Yang gave him a slightly annoyed look before sighing. "I'm sorry. Are you really alright though? Like are you in a lot of pain?"

"I'm fine, Yang, really. It's not that bad. Plus my insurance couldn't afford painkillers."

"Ouch. That sucks." she turned to look at the ground, absentmindedly playing with some of her hair. She didn't speak for a few seconds. "So, did you get a cool scar out of it?"

Alexei looked at her with curiosity. "Are you just looking for an excuse to get my shirt off?"

"What?! No!" she said suddenly before looking up to see the amused look on his face. She blushed slightly from her outburst.

"I made the shameless Yang Xiao Long blush. I must be the first guy to do that." Alexei boasted. "What an occasion."

"Shut up." she mumbled.

"No really, I think I deserve some kind of medal." Alexei kept on going. "Maybe I should write this down and capture the memories."

"Okay, jeez. I get it." she lightly shoved him. She put on a grin. "What if I was though?"

"What?" he asked flatly as his smile dropped.

"What if I did want you to take your shirt off?"

"Yang...uh…" Alexei felt his voice shake slightly as he spoke.

"What's the matter? Don't like it when the tables are turned?" she leaned in, causing him to back up. "You know we're all alone right now, you could do whatever you wanted with me right now and no one would know."

Alexei couldn't speak. His mouth had gone entirely dry as his heart hammered in his chest and a certain part of his male anatomy began to stand at attention. His eyes lowered to stare straight down Yang's tank top. He felt his hands begin to shake. She leaned forward even more, causing him to lean back and grunt in pain as his healing wound sent signals of pain throughout his body.

"Are you okay?" Yang's overly flirty tone was gone as she moved away from Alexei.

"Yeah," he groaned. Rubbing at the wound didn't help at all. Yang's hand on his arm made him tense up even more and his aura pushed her away.

"I'm sorry." she pulled her hand back. "Aren't you taking something for the pain?"

"I just told you, the insurance didn't cover it. We would get some but we couldn't afford to get any." Alexei lied for the third time that day.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot." Yang said, she lost eye contact with Alexei. "You really shouldn't be in the gym though. I think you should go home."

"Last time I let myself take a short break I gained ten pounds." Alexei said dryly.

"Well this time you need to take a break, and I don't want to beat up a crippled friend to stop him from hurting himself." Yang said. She stood to her and held her hand out to help him up.

He looked at the pale hand of Yang Xiao Long before he grabbed it with his own. Her hands were different from the hands of many other girls. Years of boxing had left calluses along her knuckles and the insides of her palms. It was clear, however that she had used some form of treatment to smooth them out as best she could. His own hands had developed calluses, mostly around his trigger finger and palms, due to handling Gray Death. The calluses on his hands, however were untreated and dry. In the winter they would crack and occasionally bleed. She put her hands through much more, and yet they were far more taken care of and overall, much more pleasant to touch than his.

Realizing that he had held her hand for long enough that it bordered on creepy, he let her help him to his feet, and immediately let go of her hand once the action was completed.

"I'll walk you to your car, okay?" she said.

A nod was her only response. Most of his responses on the walk to his vehicle were brief. He found that his mind was stuck on the subject of hands, and all that they could mean. Several times he looked at hers, conjuring up the memory of how they felt. Eventually, they stopped once they reached his car. Yang asked him if he needed someone to drive him. He insisted that he could make due with one hand. She said that she'd trust him and said her goodbye. Before turning to walk away, she hesitated, as though there was something that she wanted to say, but she didn't speak. Instead the two made brief, and awkward eye contact before she turned and walked away, leaving him to start the engine and drive off alone.

* * *

For another night, Alexei sat alone in his room, just as he did every night. Most days he spent most of his time inside as well. He sat in front of his computer monitor, something else that was very similar to most nights. His gray eyes stared through the wall behind his monitor, nothing holding their gaze. The only difference was a slight change in his posture, which he had to alter to accommodate his cast-wearing arm.

Only the dull buzz of the ceiling fan could be heard in the room. That changed due to a small vibration on his computer desk. Without thinking, he looked at his scroll immediately, expecting a notification from his email, or perhaps a message from his service provider. Reaching forward with his good hand, Alexei could see that the screen showed he had received a message. Once he swiped his finger to unlock the device he could see that it was from Yang. Immediately he opened the message to see what it was.

'Why did you lie to me today about the painkillers?' the message read.

He felt a chill wash over his body. Soon enough, the scroll vibrated again.

'Ruby and I do talk you know. Maybe if you had told the same lie to both of us then I wouldn't have found out. So why did you lie to me?'

Alexei typed his response quickly, almost without thinking.

'I don't know.'

A few minutes passed as Alexei tried to focus back on the video he had been watching, with no success. Another vibration came.

'Do you think you deserve the pain or something?'

Alexei stared at Yang's response for several minutes. He couldn't think of a response and typed one by instinct.

'I don't know.'

Alexei leaned back in his chair, a familiar feeling coming over his body. It made him feel as though he was too weak to continue holding the scroll in his hand. Another vibration made him look back at the scroll again.

'How many more chances do I need to give you before you open up to me?'

Again, Alexei typed back his response.

'I don't know.'

No response came immediately. Alexei was convinced that she was finally done with him. It didn't surprise him, many times he found that people became sick of him. Perhaps, however, it was this constant fear that caused people to leave him. A self-fulfilling prophecy that he had been letting terrorize him for years.

Slowly, he reached for the knife on his desk. The vibration of his scroll stopped him. He picked up the device and read the message he had received.

'You know I care about you right? Even if you make it hard to sometimes.'

Alexei read over the message multiple times. It took him at least a minute to respond.

'Sorry, I've got to go to bed early tonight.'

A response came back quickly.

'Okay. Goodnight. I hope whatever's bothering you stops soon.'

Alexei put down the scroll and looked back at his knife one more time before moving to lay down in his bed. Once he was there, it didn't take long for his exhaustion to win out, causing him to fall asleep.

* * *

 **AN: Well hello there, I'm not dead. No such luck. I really hate giving excuses, but with school starting up and a hand injury at work (second degree burns from scalding hot water) that made it impossible to type with both hands for around two weeks, my writing slowed to a snail's pace. Other than that my general lack of motivation destroyed me as well as my love of doing things that aren't really productive. My friends have been taking some of my time as well. I fucking hate that it's taken me three months and a week to update but at least this chapter is long as hell, hopefully that makes up for my tardiness. I did mention that I'm update challenged. Thanks to my Beta reader, Twisted Fate MK 2, once again. They looked over my chapter despite having so much on their plate already so be sure to check out some of his many stories as well. I liked what I saw.**

 **Now I guess I'll write out some responses to reviews.**

 **Twisted Fate MK 2**

 **Well, of course it looks good. I've got you to thank for that.**

 **DePlexx**

 **Perhaps. I'll make no promises. Glad that you're enjoying this version as well.**

 **titansFire**

 **I'm trying to write the canon characters here as though they are a year younger. It's the reason why Yang isn't nearly as confident as she appears in RWBY. I'm glad to hear that I'm doing good with them though. The suggestion that I have to give people as far as keeping canon characters down, is to either watch the hell out of the show, or keep the RWBY wiki open in a separate tab to read their personality when unsure of what to do. I'm just guessing with Qrow and Taiyang. I could be completely wrong and Qrow could be complete joker. As it is I feel like I made him a little too similar to Ozpin. I'm thankful for all the praise.**

 **NugiSpringfield**

 **Thanks. That might be a little too much praise, but eh, I'll take it.**

 **Ionized Rose**

 **Well then clearly you haven't been reading any good stories. I'm joking of course, thank you. Yes, Alexei is heavily based on myself, though there are some minor details. This whole damn fic turns into self therapy at times, which may be why I don't update as much as I should. For anyone else who's curious about Gray Death's design, here's a copy-and-paste of my full explanation to Mister Rose:**

 _ **Gray Death's design changes in my head practically every time I imagine it. I've tried drawing it a few times but it rarely works out. I imagine it to have the body and grip of a Kalashnikov. (due to Alexei's mostly Russian design) The barrel and magazine are Barrett-like in their make. The handhold mentioned to be above the receiver would be similar to the G36 in it's look. It's mainly used in its axe form as better leverage for a swing. The stock would be bulky and square-like. It needs to be in order to house the huge axe blades. When it folds out, it no longer resembles a stock, it looks more like the head of a battle-axe, meaning that the only way it can really be used as a rifle is by firing from the hip. The bayonet itself would look like one straight out of WW1. At two feet long, it makes the rifle almost like a glaive hybrid before the axe is even brought out. So in short, it's like a Frankenstein's monster of rifles smashed together.**_

 **Im Sammeh**

 **Thanks for the push to get to work. And yes, I think the time shift fits way better. This time the characters are actually getting introduced.**

 **Anyways, my feelings are very mixed with this chapter. I feel like it really could have been shortened, seeing as how it's almost entirely geared towards further fleshing out Alexei. Though quite a few side characters got fleshed out WAY more than they did in Gray Death.**

 **So anyways, reviews are appreciated, though not mandatory. I'll never lock chapters behind review counts. These chapters take way too long to come out anyways. I'm just as happy to receive a PM with your thoughts as well. Don't be afraid to critique me. I think my work could always use improvement, which requires criticism to exist.**

 **The next update will come out when the next blue moon occurs, so look forward to that. (sarcasm, I have no clue when it'll be ready unfortunately) Hopefully I'll see all of you next time. Buh bye now.**


	3. Chapter Three: Thoughts

He had expected his finals to go the way they had. In the end he passed every class. Though his grades in both math and grimm studies were barely passing. Of course, being in fourth place overall in combat granted him a perfect grade in combat class. Alexei looked down at the report card and put it in his bag as he walked out of the school and towards his car. Clearing out his locker for the last time was enough to make him feel sentimental. He began to realize that this would also be the last time he'd walk out of Signal after a day of classes. Alexei turned around to look at the main building on campus one last time. A flash of red and rose petals collided into his chest, causing him to groan and stumble back.

"I'm sorry!" Ruby backed away from the hug she had just given him. "You're still healing aren't you?"

"It's fine, I'm just a bit sore." Alexei said as he rubbed at the scar with his hand. While the stitches had been pulled, the scar itself was still red and sore. Some of the muscles in his chest still ached when used. His cast had come off recently, as well.

Yang came walking up behind Ruby, waving to Alexei as she did so. "Leaving already?" She asked.

"Well, I've cleared my stuff out of my locker. Is there any other reason to stick around?"

Both Ruby and Yang put on pouts. Yang spoke first, "Are you really this oblivious or is it just a pain for you to hang out with us?" Her tone came out as teasing, but he immediately felt guilty.

"Oh, uh, sorry, I didn't know that you guys wanted to hang out with me."

"Of course we do!" Ruby exclaimed, looking shocked as she talked. "Why wouldn't we? You're our friend."

"You're just about the only friend Ruby and I have in common." Yang added.

"Well, I'm free for the whole day if you want to do something." He said awkwardly, unsure of where to look.

"We actually won't be able to hang too long, dad likes to take us out on the last day of school." Yang said. "We were just about to visit our uncle before we left, do you wanna come?"

Alexei didn't think before he nodded. Yang smiled and gestured for him to follow her and her sister. The three walked back into the main campus building, and followed it's hallways until they reached the door to the classroom. Before they were even inside, Alexei could hear the sound of a drawer being opened. Once he was past the door's threshold, he could see the professor with a flask to his lips. Qrow's eyes opened as he noticed the three teens walking into his classroom.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby put her hands on her hips. "You know you shouldn't do that at school!"

Qrow laughed as he put down the flask. "Not gonna matter if they catch me now, kiddo."

Yang and Ruby looked at each other and Alexei, confused. "Why not?" asked Yang.

Qrow sat on the desk in front of him, beside a shotgun-hammer hybrid. "I'm going to be going away for awhile, hunter business."

Ruby pouted as Yang frowned. "This is the first time you've been able to stay for this long in a long time." Ruby said, "Are you sure they can't send someone else?"

"Afraid not." Qrow frowned as well. "This mission is pretty important."

"What are you even going to be doing?" Yang asked as she moved to lean against one of the workbenches.

"You know I can't tell you that." Qrow gave them a somewhat serious look before his red eyes moved to rest on Alexei. "Oh hey, Alex, didn't notice you. What did these two do to drag you down here this time?"

Ruby pouted again as Alexei let out a small, nervous laugh. "I came here on my own. They just asked nicely."

Qrow's eyebrow raised. "Following my pretty nieces around, huh? You know what my brother-in-law did to the last boy who tried that?"

Both Yang and Ruby blushed lightly as their eyes widened. Alexei felt his breath stop and struggled to find any words to speak.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby all but screamed at him and started hitting him on the arm as he laughed.

"To be fair, that guy was kind of a creep." Yang said quietly. Alexei looked at her to see that she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye. When their gaze met, she looked away quickly, as did he.

"I'm just kidding with you, Alex." Qrow raised the flask to his mouth again to take a very audible gulp. "I'm not as overprotective of them as Taiyang anyways. I'll still break your arm if you hurt them though."

Yang rolled her eyes while Ruby just sighed and looked away. Qrow sat back, using his arms to hold himself up. "So, what're you three doing?"

"Just hanging out." Yang said. "You know Alexei's graduating after today, right?"

Qrow turned back to Alexei. "That's right. Where are you going after this?"

"Beacon, Headmaster Ozpin gave me an invitation himself." Alexei said after clearing his throat.

"Well aren't you lucky. It's probably because of that match you fought."

"Which is confusing since I technically lost." Alexei said with small shrug.

Qrow cocked his head slightly and narrowed his eyes. "You may have, but that move you pulled at the end was pretty impressive. Don't get me wrong, Aaden is a great fighter too, but you proved that you could make a split second decision that rendered your opponent immobile."

Alexei looked down at the ground as his eyebrows scrunched together. "That's more or less what Ozpin told me."

Qrow shrugged, "Makes sense. Him and I share some views on stuff like that. Either way, from what I've seen of you, I'm sure you'll do just fine. You've got a weapon me and Ruby here designed after all."

"Yeah!" Ruby joined in. "You're gonna do great at Beacon."

Alexei put on a smile and nodded. "Thanks." He said. Looking to his left, he could see that Yang was watching him with a neutral expression. She looked at him for a few seconds longer before she broke off her gaze.

"All three of you will." Said Qrow. "You girls are related to every member of the greatest team to ever graduate Beacon." He stopped to look at the clock on the back wall. "I'm sorry to stop you guys, but I've got to go home and start packing. I need to leave early because I was just going to look over this for a student." He gestured at the shotgun-hammer on the desk.

"Oh, are you repairing it?" Ruby started to jump from foot to foot. "Can I help you with it?"

"Doesn't your dad take the two of you to the arcade and pizza place on the last day of school?" Qrow smirked.

"There's plenty of time." Ruby said with a wave of her hand as she stared at the weapon on the table.

"Well, I guess I could use some help." Qrow said. He turned to Yang and Alexei. "What about you two? Want to comes with us?"

"Yeah, I'll walk though, it's not too far to your house, it's practically on campus." Yang said. "I just remembered that I've got to get something from my locker before we go."

Qrow looked carefully between Yang and Alexei before shrugging and turning to Ruby, who was drooling on the weapon sitting on the table. "Come on, Rubes, let's get this thing to my car."

Ruby picked up the weapon and bolted out of the room in a trail of rose petals before Qrow could even move. The older man smirked and walked out of the workshop, stopping only to glance back at Yang and Alexei with a raised eyebrow, before he shrugged and walked off.

Yang turned to Alexei once the sound of Qrow's footsteps died down. Her lilac eyes made him feel instantly anxious, but he managed to hold her gaze. They looked each other in the eye for what felt like hours to Alexei before Yang finally talked. "You're still depressed."

Alexei felt his chest clench as he unknowingly held his breath. She hadn't asked it, merely stated it in a calm manner that seemed so much unlike her. His eyes immediately drifted off to stare out the class windows where he studied the trees. She moved to stand in front of his gaze, causing him to once again start holding his breath as he looked up at the ceiling instead. He opened his mouth, the words that came out uncertain of themselves. "What's this about Yang?"

She merely moved forward and put her hands on his cheeks, forcing his face to turn to hers. Alexei sucked in a breath of air. Her hands were smooth and warm, warmer than he had expected. His eyes studied her face. She was barely an inch shorter than him, meaning it was easy for her to hold his face at arm's length. The look on her face was one that he couldn't understand. She looked...determined, her eyebrows close, but not so close that he'd think she was angry. The no doubt soft lips below that were pressed into a straight line, and her eyelids were slightly squinted as she studied him in return. He suddenly felt conscious of the rough, two-day stubble on his face that she could definitely feel at the moment.

"You've been like this ever since the fight. I've seen you like this before, but never for this long. You keep on avoiding talking about it, but that's over. Just, please, as someone who cares about you, just tell me something at least."

Alexei swallowed hard and looked away again, before giving a sigh. "Yang, I just get like this sometimes. I don't know how to describe it. It just happens, usually when I'm thinking about too many things all at once."

"What do you mean?" She let go of his face, something that both relieved and disappointed him at the same time.

He sighed once again and leaned against a table. "Have you ever just had so many thoughts all at once, or just one that you can't stop thinking about, and you just can't stop? Like, almost like your brain just stops focusing on your body so that it can try to work on what you're thinking on the inside. Sometimes those thoughts aren't bad and sometimes they don't even feel like thoughts. I do that a lot sometimes. My body stops and I just think about something until I stop thinking about it. Does that make sense?" He looked at her with his mouth slightly open.

Yang looked at Alexei in what he thought was confusion, but he wasn't completely sure if that was what it was. "I don't quite follow." She admitted as she scratched the back of her head. "Is it about the match?"

Alexei looked down, thinking about it for a second, and trying to make sure he didn't think about it for too long. "That's one of the things, but there are a lot of others."

"What are they?"

' _I'm worthless. I wish I had never been born. What's wrong with me? I'll never make it at Beacon. What happens when I fuck everything up and everyone hates me? Why couldn't my semblance come out earlier like a normal person? Why can't I get a girlfriend? What's wrong with me? Will I always be like this? I'm a terrible fighter and I'll make an even worse huntsman. Do I have feelings for you? Do I have feelings for Amanda? Ruby? When are you going to leave me? Why does everyone always leave me? What's wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong with me? What in the fuck is wrong with me?!'_

Alexei shook his head violently, almost causing himself to become dizzy. "There are too many."

Yang looked at him, her expression sinking. "Do you remember when I unlocked your aura for you?"

"Yeah, mostly."

Her eyes went back to him, a barely visible pout on her lips. "What did you forget?"

"Well, from what I remember, the staff, including Qrow learned that I hadn't had my aura unlocked yet when I first signed up for hunter training classes. Since I didn't have anyone in my family who could do it, and they figured it'd be best for someone around my age to do it, so that it'd be less intimidating and I could open up, they chose you."

Yang smiled at little bit at his retelling. "That's what I remember. It apparently didn't help by the way, you were so nervous when I did it that I swear I could hear your heartbeat from a few feet away."

Alexei looked elsewhere as he tried not to react. "Well-"

"But when I did it, I was kind of weirded out. I had never unlocked someone's aura before, but when my dad unlocked mine I could have sworn I felt his soul. I could feel his love for me and Ruby, the pain still left over from losing two wives, the pride he still carried, everything. Maybe it helped that I was so familiar with him. Before I unlocked yours though, we'd talked maybe once or twice before, so I knew nothing about you. All the things I felt from your soul were kind of strange to me at the time."

"You know I'm not really into the whole soul thing." Alexei said almost on instinct before wondering why he'd even said it.

Yang shook her head slightly with a small frown. "Now's not the time." She continued, the frown gone but the smile still hadn't returned. "Anyways, I could immediately feel how nervous you were, but then everything else came in. There were some good feelings, but also a lot of bad ones. I thought it was weird. It almost felt like anger, sadness, and fear all mixed into one. I realized that it was kind of like what I felt after my mom...disappeared, but it was still really different. What was really different was that I felt all of that at once, all of those emotions coming at once. It seemed so confusing, like they didn't know what they were themselves, and there didn't feel like there was a reason for them to be there, they just...were. Your aura unlocked so quickly, it was like it was letting me in and letting me feel everything, and then it pushed me away after I was done."

Alexei began studying the ceiling tiles, not providing any kind of response. Finally he did respond. "Oh."

"Oh? Really?" Yang's voice took on a tone of building frustration. "That's all you have to say?"

"I...What do you want me to say?"

"Something, anything." She sighed and calmed herself before speaking again. "Just tell me what you're feeling."

"I...don't know."

Yang's mouth hung open. "What?"

"I'm just… not certain. My feelings Yang, they're...confusing to me." Alexei looked down at his own hands as he closed and opened them repeatedly. "I just wish I could stop thinking."

She remained quiet for a few moments. ' _Maybe she's realizing that this is the real me.'_ Alexei thought. ' _The Alexei she knows is an act that feels unnatural. All forced smiles and laughs. One used as a defense. No doubt she'll just walk out and leave me for go-'_

"Ruby and I were planning on going out next week, do you want to come?"

Now it was Alexei's turn to be confused. "What?" He asked.

"Sometimes, hanging out with friends is a good way to get your mind off of things. It can help." Yang smiled at his expression. "So, want to come?"

Alexei felt more confused than ever. "Um...sure. I just need to know where to go to meet you."

"I'll text you about it later." She said with a smile and a wink. With a quick move, she took a look at her scroll. "I've got to go though. Qrow will probably start getting suspicious and joke about it with dad who will freak out." She sighed. "I'll see you next week." With that, she opened the door to walk out, but stopped before completely out of his view. "And Alexei, stop overthinking things."

After she was gone, Alexei took a few minutes to stand in silence to reflect on what had just happened. His mind of course began to try and work out why Yang's mood had changed so suddenly, and forgot her advice on overthinking things shortly afterwards. The walk to his car was filled with more overthinking than any other walk he had taken in years.

* * *

The week passed quickly for Alexei. He had spent a few days gaming online with Marcus, and the two played one night with Aaden. Another day he had to register with Beacon Academy. He met Marcus there and learned that both Aaden and Avarna had also registered. The fact that Beacon was going to start classes merely a month after Signal's graduation was still shocking to him. The explanation that he received told him that it was to make sure that incoming freshmen wouldn't have enough time to slack off too much.

One day before he would go to hang out with Ruby and Yang was Signal's graduation ceremony. It passed without too much pain for him. Out of the over two-hundred graduating students, he still kept his place as the fourth best fighter in the class. His place for his studies was far less impressive, being somewhere in the high fifties. Alexei's mother had of course told him multiple times how proud she was of him, though he could still identify the apprehension in her voice. He doubted that he'd ever stop hearing it. She had made it clear that his choice to become a hunter made her incredibly nervous.

Saturday had finally come, and Alexei felt anxious about the whole thing. Once he was finished putting on his boots and opened the door to his bedroom, he was surprised as he nearly ran into his mother, who had a basket of laundry with her.

"You're going out?" Her face was filled with surprise.

"Yeah, I'm just going out with Yang."

"Oh really? I didn't know you were dating her." His mother smiled wide. "She's really cute Alex, seemed nice too the one time I met her."

"Well, it's not a date." Alexei said, clearing his throat as he did. "Her sister Ruby is going to be there too."

"Who invited you though?" His mother's eyebrow raised.

"Yang did."

"Well, just make sure you offer to pay if she just so happens to show up without Ruby." His mother walked past him to his parents' bedroom with the laundry basket behind her, leaving Alexei to stand in the hallway blinking his eyes with a confused face.

The drive to the shopping mall was an easy and quick one. Walking to the entrance made Alexei suddenly feel more anxiety. What if his mother had been right? What if Yang was going to be there, alone? Thoughts like those made his heartbeat increase in tempo as he tried not to think how he could do something to completely ruin his friendship with Yang, and by association, Ruby as well. With a sigh, Alexei decided that he was overthinking things, (as usual) and that Yang was just being a good friend.

Bright lights nearly overwhelmed him as he walked inside. Patch might have been tiny in comparison to Vale, but the mall was proof that the island had money to spend. There weren't many other ways to draw in tourists, after all.

Alexei walked to the center fountain, where Yang had told him she'd meet him with Ruby. Once he was there, he looked around and couldn't find either girl. Fearing the worst, he immediately began to think that he'd done something wrong and she'd decided not to show up, then he realized that he was ten minutes early. For Alexei, the wait was agonizing as he sat on the fountain's edge. He was plagued with thoughts of whether or not the two had found out that he wasn't worth their time.

"Hey! What'cha doing?"

Alexei jumped and immediately turned to the source of the voice. Yang was bent over slightly, looking him in the eyes. Instantly he felt all the nerves he had been allowing to build up take over as his heartbeat quickened and his mouth turned dry. Despite that, he managed to force himself to speak.

"Hey, Yang." Alexei noticed that she was wearing different clothes than usual. A yellow top that hugged her skin and had a neckline deeper than the school dress code allowed with a pair of shorts that stopped halfway to her knees. Looking around her in an attempt to not be caught staring, he noticed something else. "Where's Ruby?"

Yang stood up, still wearing a smile. "She's sick. Stayed up all night working on another weapon project and caught a cold."

Thinking on it, Alexei decided that was a very Ruby thing to do. His mind began to think about what his mother had said before he left, but he thought that maybe he was just overthinking things again.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat." Yang grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up with little effort, taking him to one of the mall's cafes.

Soon after they were seated by a window and told that a waitress would be with them shortly, Alexei began to feel overwhelmed by all the noise around him. It seemed as though a Saturday afternoon during a nice day in the summer was a day that was good for business. Alexei's ears picked up Yang's voice, but he hadn't understood her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." He said.

"Have you come here before?" Yang repeated, watching him.

"No. I've only been to the mall a few times, but that was usually for other things."

Yang opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted when a waitress came to ask for drinks. Alexei instantly asked for water, almost as a reflex. Feeling eyes on him, he noticed Yang looking at him with a smirk as she ordered orange soda. Once the waitress was gone Yang spoke.

"Water? Really, Alex?" She let out a small laugh that made Alexei feel something pleasant. "You should try living it up. I don't think I've ever seen you drink anything else."

Alexei cleared his throat and responded while trying to make sure that he didn't stare into her eyes for too long. "I'll eat for taste. I don't really like many flavored drinks."

"Really? No soda?" Yang's eyebrows raised as her eyes widened.

"No, the carbonation bothers me. Especially since I stopped drinking it a few years ago."

"What about hot chocolate?"

"I really don't like it because of how powdery it can be."

"Tea? Coffee?"

"I can't stand the flavor of either."

"So nothing at all?"

"Well, milk, cider, and some juices are okay, but I'd still take water over any of them."

"You're killing me Alex." Yang shook her head as the waitress walked up to the table and placed their drinks in front of them. Their orders were placed soon after, both deciding to have a cheese burger. The conversation by that point was unfocused, drifting to anything from who was going to what academy after Signal to the appearances of the people in the cafe.

"This is fun, I don't know why we haven't tried it out sooner." Yang said once they had both finished their food.

Alexei sat in silence for what he guessed was too long before speaking. "Well, I guess school keeps us all kind of busy. Sucks that Ruby got sick working on another project and couldn't come today."

Yang watched Alexei with a look that looked like disappointment to Alexei, before it disappeared rather quickly, replaced by what looked like realization. A sigh passed through Yang's lips. "You really aren't that smart when it comes to stuff like this, are you?"

Offense should have been what Alexei felt, instead it was mild confusion. "What do you mean?" He felt like the answer was in front of him, but something was making it nearly impossible to see.

Another sigh came from Yang. "Nevermind." A quick glance at her scroll's screen brought another smile to her face. "Hey, I think that the theater is going to be showing some movies soon, wanna check it out?"

"I don't have anything to do today." Alexei said.

"Cool." Yang stood, leaving money for a tip on the table. At the cash register, the two paid for their own meals and left the cafe, making their way to the mall's movie theater. Just like the rest of the shopping center, it was busy. Crowds walked in and out of the doors, a sign above them displayed the various shows being shown inside.

"Hmm." From the side, Alexei watched as Yang looked up at the sign. She ran a hand through her long hair and grabbed a few strands to play with while thinking. Alexei began to wonder what it would feel like to run his own hand through her hair. "How about 'The Indigo Polygraph'? It looked like it could be pretty kickass and funny too."

The trailers for the movie had definitely drawn Alexei in. A superhero who's only power was to tell when someone was lying was concept that he thought couldn't sell well, but apparently it's sizable comic book fan base and an actress who was a fan herself was enough for a studio to see a possibility for profit. Paying for a ticket made Alexei realize that his wallet was starting to get more and more empty. While he wanted to continue spending time with Yang, he hoped he wouldn't have to spend all his money before making it to Beacon. It also made him realize that he wouldn't have been able to follow his mother's advice even if he had remembered to at the cafe.

Watching the movie with Yang was something he wished would last as long as possible. Not many of the jokes made him laugh, but it was probably because he was distracted by the girl next to him. Her laugh may not have sounded much different from most peoples' laughs, but the way she laughed, starting from her stomach and working up to her cause her shoulders to shake was fascinating to him. At one point the two began to playfully fight over the armrest shared by their seats. The victory went to Yang, but Alexei, without thinking, put his arm on top of hers in defiance. She turned away from the movie to look at him with a smile that instantly made him his heart start its quick pace once again. It was a smile that he couldn't quite read, but one that made him feel a lot of emotions that he was barely familiar with. By the end of the movie, Yang had turned her arm over and slipped her fingers in between his, causing him yet another minor, harmless heart attack.

By the time the movie was over, he couldn't remember much of what had happened on the screen, and was more confused about what had happened between him and Yang.

' _Was my mother right? Is this a date? Is Yang interested in me in a way that is more than just friendly? What is there about me to like though?'_ He was trying to work up the courage to ask Yang any one of these questions when she glanced down at her scroll and visibly flinched.

"I didn't know the movie would be that long!" She exclaimed, before turning to Alexei. "Okay, so I may not have told my dad about this and he gets home in less than an hour and I really need to get there before him. I just hope Ruby will cover for me." She leaned in, wrapping her arms around him.

Hugs weren't something that Alexei liked as much as others. In general he wasn't known for being touchy-feely. The hug that he was sharing with the girl in front of him, however, gave him a new opinion on human contact. With her chin resting on his shoulder, his face was close to her hair, allowing him to smell her sweet, honeysuckle-scented shampoo. The sensation of her chest pressed against his was one that made him fight to make sure that Yang wouldn't be feeling something pressed against _her_. After a few shock-filled seconds, he raised his own arms and wrapped them around her back, recoiling when he felt her soft hair, but he completed the hug anyways. After what seemed like a long time to Alexei, Yang broke off the hug, still staying close to him. She looked into his eyes and leaned in once again. This time, something soft and slightly wet touched Alexei's cheek. It lasted for a brief second, but it left a lasting impression.

"I had a lot of fun. I'd really like to stay, but I really have to go. I'll see you later, Alex." With that, Yang turned and began sprinting for the mall's exit.

He stood there for awhile with far too many things being processed in his brain at once. Then it finally hit him that Yang Xiao Long had kissed his cheek. That fact stayed in his mind until he finally managed to start moving his feet again.

* * *

The drive to the airship port was long for Alexei. Stuck inside his own mind, he paid no heed to the passing landscape outside of his family's car. Yang hadn't been able to find any more free time to hang out with him, leaving him to wonder what they would have done had they found the time to be alone. He had ultimately decided to not go to Avarna and Aaden's graduation party, instead choosing to stay in his house as usual. Now he was with his mom, on his way to start at a new school where he'd learn to slay monsters. Most people in his position would be feeling excited, but he felt anxious and nothing at the same time.

"Are you sure you have everything?" His mother asked him.

"Yeah, I was sure the last fifty times. I'm still sure now."

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm nervous, you know I am."

"Yeah, mom, I know."

Forest changed to buildings as they passed into the city. Since he had never flown on an airship before, Alexei felt his anxiety build even more as wondered what exactly it would be like.

"You know that your dad wanted to come, right?" His mother spoke again, almost carefully.

"Yeah." Alexei said plainly. "Not like his job is that heavy on vacation days anyways."

"That's why I'm so proud of you for trying to follow your dream. He just gave up a long time ago. We both did. I'm so happy that you decided to get a better job than us, I just wish-"

"That it was something safer." Alexei finished for her. "You've told me that more times than I can count, mom. I know what I'm getting into."

"I don't know if you do, Alex." She continued as she made a turn, the airship port now visible in the distance. "Some of my brothers still have nightmares, and they were only in the military, but it still changed them. I can't imagine what it's like to be a hunter. The things they have to go through…and not to mention how many get hurt...or worse…"

"I get it." Alexei said, frustration building in his voice. "I'm making a huge mistake. I just shouldn't go through with it."

"No, baby, that's not what I meant."

"I know, mom." He gained control of his tone. "Just...I don't want to talk about this anymore."

The remainder of the drive was silent, Alexei watched as the tall buildings turned to skyscrapers the closer they got to the port. Patch may have been a small island in comparison to the mega city that was Vale, but it still had its rich areas. For someone like Alexei who had lived in a much smaller town outside of the city, it could be overwhelming at times, seeing less of the sky than usual. Once it came to a stop, Alexei could see how large the airship port truly was.

Standing higher than all other buildings around it, he had to wonder just how tall it was. Airships had a distinct advantage over planes, in that they didn't need nearly as much room for takeoff, so most airship ports were more vertical in design and were placed in the center of a large city. From the bottom, he could see airships high up in the sky taking off from pads on the sides, looking like the heads of mushrooms attached to a tree.

"Do you have everything?" His mother asked.

"Yes, mom, I have everything." Alexei opened the car door and moved to the back, where he opened the trunk and grabbed a large duffle bag and threw the strap over his shoulder. He pulled out two large rolling suitcases as his mother came to stand beside him.

"Okay, just...be careful? Please?" She hugged him from the side.

"I will, mom."

"I love you." She said as she let him go.

Alexei sighed as quietly as he could while turning away. "Love you too, bye."

"Don't forget to call."

"I won't." He didn't watch as she got in and drove away.

After passing through the massive doors, Alexei began to look for an elevator. Beacon ferried in as many students as it could at a time on large airships, which were located towards the top of the port itself. The inside of port made Alexei's heart speed up as he could barely see through the massive crowd. He moved through, bumping into more people than he could count, and eventually found his way to the massive structure in the center of the building that vaguely resembled a column. It seemed to hold multiple elevators that ran up to the top of the building. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the piece of paper in the letter he had received that gave detailed instructions on how he was going to get to Beacon.

"Excuse me, are you going to move, or not?" The voice was definitely female, and the tone told Alexei that whoever it was felt very annoyed. Turning around, he saw the source.

Shoulder length brown hair that seemed perfectly styled hung around a pale, white face. Dark sunglasses hid her eyes from Alexei, making him unsure of where to look. Pressing her lips together in annoyance, the girl leaned on the large trunk she had been rolling along behind her.

"I'm sorry, I-uh, I was trying to figure out what pad I'm supposed to get to." He tried to look back at the paper in his hands.

Using her hand, the girl lowered her sunglasses with her hand to look at the letter Alexei held, when her eyes scanned over the Beacon symbol on its front, her eyes widened. "You're going to Beacon too, huh? Well you're in luck. I am too."

"Oh, uh, do you know what pad we're supposed to get to?" Alexei looked back up at her to see that she was looking him over. Not in the way someone looks at another person when they want to get to know them in a more carnal way, no, she was looking at him in the way he imagined an art critique would look over a painting. It was clear once she was done that he was less like a painting and more like a doodle drawn by a toddler.

"Well, at least the colors that you're wearing go together. It's pretty easy to tell that you didn't put much thought into the rest of it." Upon closer inspection, Alexei could tell that this girl was into fashion. Her entire outfit matched in ways he didn't know clothing could match. Even parts that looked like imperfections looked like they had been done on purpose. "I'm Coco Adel, not from Patch, thank god, just visiting family here before I go to Beacon."

She held out her hand, which of course looked just as perfect as her mostly brown colored outfit. He took her hand and shook it briefly. "Alexei Seryy. I'm from here."

"Wait, I've heard your name before. You were in that tournament in Signal that people have been talking about." She let go of his hand and appeared to study him further before stopping gesture her arm towards the elevators. "Come on, we can talk on the way to the pad."

Alexei let her start before walking at arm's length from her. "Who's talking about it?"

"You don't know? A lot of videos of you have been taken down, but for a while some recording someone from the crowd took was circling around of some forums. That move that you ended the fight with impressed a lot of people."

"I lost the fight."

"Technically, yeah, but you still managed to take that other guy from nearly full green down into the red with one move."

"I guess that's true."

The two got in the elevator with a middle aged couple and two kids. Coco pressed a button that would take them near the top of the port itself. She leaned against the glass of the elevator's back wall with a kind of confidence that Alexei could only wish he had.

"What caliber is that rifle of yours, by the way?"

".50 cal." Alexei replied.

"Nice. I use 5.56 for my own weapon. It's a six-barrel rotary MG, so if I used anything bigger the kick would be too much to handle. Your's must have a pretty good design if you can shoot a round that big so quick."

"Well, the girl who designed it made sure that there were plenty of components to make recoil easier to handle."

With a barely noticeable lurch, the elevator came to a stop, and the family got off. Once the door closed, Coco spoke again.

"Whoever she is, she must be a genius. Hell, if I were you, I'd start dating her just to make sure she couldn't make weapons for anyone not on my side."

The way she had said that so nonchalantly made Alexei blush, as well as the thought of him dating Ruby. He had rarely thought of her that way, but it happened on occasion. Even if she was three years younger he couldn't deny that she was very cute, and could no doubt grow up to become just a beautiful as her sister.

"Or are you dating her already?"

Alexei turned to see Coco looking at him over her sunglasses. He shook his head and held up his hands. "No, no. We've never had that kind of relationship."

"If you say so."

A single chime rang in the elevator as the doors opened. Before Alexei could even think to move, Coco was out of the doors and looking back at him through her sunglasses.

"Well, are you coming, or what?"

Feeling embarrassed, Alexei grabbed his bags and followed her out into the open area. Several others around their age were in the open space talking amongst themselves as they waited for the airships to arrive and take them to a new life at a new school. Alexei looked at the crowds as his nerves forced his fists and jaw to clench painfully.

"You going to be okay?" Coco looked at him in a way that he was pretty sure meant she was worried. Or perhaps he was embarrassing her with his display.

With a sigh and a close of his eyes he managed to shake his head up and down while starting to walk forward as best as he could. Blue stared up at him as he kept his eyes on the floor and idly followed Coco to a group of benches near the walkway that lead out to a suspended landing pad. A small sign was lit up next to the walkway stated that an airship was in transit to the pad. Alexei's new acquaintance took a seat on a bench and crossed her legs and stretched her arms out over the bench's back. Alexei took his seat on the bench opposite to her and settled on keeping his hands in his lap after he couldn't find a place for them.

"You're pretty awkward, huh?"

Alexei coughed at the unexpected observation. He looked up at the fashion savvy girl, who had rested her head and was staring up at the ceiling above them.

"I guess I can be."

"Alexei!" They both turned their heads to see three others approaching them. Recognizing Marcus, Aaden, and Avarna, Alexei waved to them, before feeling guilty when he realized that the gesture would be lost on the later. The three walked up to them, just noticing their unknown companion. "Who's this?" Marcus asked.

"Coco Adel. I'm going to be going to Beacon, same as the rest of you, I'd guess. So you guys know Alexei?"

"Oh my, Alexei, I had no idea you had a girlfriend. What should we tell Amanda and Yang?" Avarna smirked as her pale blue stared off into the sky past the landing pad.

"Me and him?" Coco smirked. "Don't get me wrong, he's cute, but not quite my type."

Being the topic of conversation wasn't doing much good for Alexei's nerves, and he eventually blocked out the introductions they made to each other as stared out at the sky. Eventually an airship floated through a few clouds towards their landing pad. Chatter stopped as other landing pads received an airship and security lined up to check student IDs. The group made their way to the walkway, stopping only to let the guard there scan their IDs before letting them on. The sound of running footsteps caught Alexei's attention and he looked back to see Amanda running to the landing pad with a few bags as well as the massive cloth bundle on her back that no doubt held all of her spears. She was the last one on the airship before the door behind closed.

"Hello Amanda." Avarna said. Alexei had no clue how she was so good at reading others with no eyesight. "I'm glad you were able to join us."

"Y-yeah, I, uh, forgot my ID and had to run back home." She looked from Avarna to Alexei, before quickly averting her eyes when she saw that he was looking back at her.

The small lurch before the airship rose into the air made some of the students shake as they gave an involuntary reaction to the sudden, unfamiliar movement. Coco gave a smirk at the group of ex-Signal students, all of whom, with the exception of Avarna, had let their bodies betray their inexperience with airborne travel. Holo-screens in front of the windows lit up, displaying news channels giving their daily reports.

"You guys are all pretty wet behind the ears. Have you even left Patch before?" Coco asked with the smirk that Alexei was getting used to seeing on her face.

Everyone but Avarna shook their heads. "I've been to Vale a few times. My family isn't particularly rich, but my father is a high ranking manager in the Grimoire Corporation, so we can afford the occasional vacation."

"Cool. My parents are fashion designers, so we're pretty well off ourselves."

"The rest of us aren't quite as lucky." Aaden said in his usual, quiet voice.

"Well, hopefully that shit's going to change." Said Marcus with a wide smile. "They say hunters make a lot of money. I can't wait to actually be able to afford stuff."

"It would be nice to have more money for my siblings." Amanda said timidly. Her eyes wandered over to Alexei, perhaps expecting him to speak up, but his mouth stayed closed as he idly played with the strap of his duffle bag while staring at the floor. Coco took notice.

"Anything wrong Alex?"

The use of his nickname made him jerk back into reality, the sounds of news reports and talking amongst other students no longer bearing down on his hearing.

Before anyone could add anything, a hologram lit up at every window, revealing the image of the woman that had accompanied Ozpin to Alexei's hospital room.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon." The tone she spoke in was the same professional tone Alexei had heard at the hospital and her posture was still perfect. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy."

"She's really laying it on thick, huh." Marcus stated rather than asked.

"Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

Goodwitch faded out of existence, revealing the open windows which the students just now noticed and began to hurriedly gather around. When only Coco, Marcus, and Amanda went to the window, Alexei looked at the teen couple beside him and spoke before thinking.

"Why aren't you two interested in looking out?" Alexei asked.

"Well, the view out of a window never really did much for me." Avarna said with a very noticeable smirk on her lips.

"Oh, uh, sorry."

A small giggle came from Avarna as she covered her mouth. "It's fine Alexei. Perhaps I shouldn't tease you so much, but you do have a habit of making it easy. As for my boyfriend here, he's afraid of heights."

Alexei looked at Aaden, who turned to face somewhere that wasn't Alexei in a way that almost seemed out of embarrassment. Alexei could have thought that when he was fighting Aaden, that Aaden's face of fear was an intense adrenaline-fueled hallucination, but now, he could see that the unshakeable Aaden, known as Bulwark Aaden, or Aaden the Unwavering among certain more melodramatic students, was capable of feeling the most primal human emotion. Fear.

* * *

Towers, that was the first thing that he noticed. Oftentimes, he was told how the towers of Beacon loomed overhead. His imagination didn't do them much justice. By the sounds of fellow students-to-be, he apparently wasn't the only one impressed by the sight.

"Wow, I don't even think the Mercer building in southern Patch is that tall." Marcus said, standing by the window with many others.

The airship lurched as it was landed on an extended platform. Alexei felt his stomach lurch in a similar fashion. Hydraulics sounded as the door on the vessel opened, revealing the long path that led to the school many could only dream of attending. Many nearly ran off in excitement to reach the waiting academy. Alexei himself walked slower than the rest, allowing them to get ahead of him. This led to only one other walking beside him while she nervously fiddled with her bag's strap.

"You don't really s-seem all that excited." Amanda observed.

"I guess I'm not nearly as ecstatic as most of the people here." He agreed. Walked towards the school he noticed the disturbing lack of a response inside of him, though he had never been one to be excited about much.

"I-I feel a little overwhelmed. It's such a big change from Signal."

"I'm sure it'll be fine, but I have to agree. It's huge. Not to mention that the fight real Grimm here."

"D-Do you think they'll be scary. I've n-never actually seen one up close." Amanda managed to make eye contact with him briefly while asking her question, only to look away just as quickly.

"Well, I've seen them up close before."

"Really? What was it like?"

"I...well, to be honest, I can't remember. All I knew was that one second, I was helping a friend fight off some bullies, the next, I woke up days later in the hospital."

"That's awful!" Alexei looked to Amanda, who had stopped walking and was looking up at him with wide eyes. "What about the others? Your friend, and the b-bullies?"

"They...well. My friend, she...they said that her chest got caved in. As for the bullies, well, they said that they couldn't find much of their bodies. The investigators couldn't figure out how I survived. Just guessed that the Grimm found something more interesting, but it didn't make sense why a random Grimm made it to a playground, killed some kids, and then up and left."

"Wow...I can't believe that you'd st-still want to be a huntsman after that."

"I can't even remember it, so...I don't know. It's in the past. I don't think about it much." Alexei kept on walking as he thought about how much of a lie that was.

They walked past a fountain, which depicted hunters standing over a slain Grimm, and towards what looked like the main building, where many others were gathering around, while the rest moved on towards other things. A flash of light briefly shocked Alexei as he saw that the source was a smiling girl with dark green hair. Her eyes were blocked by a large camera that she slowly lowered it to stare back at the two.

"Hiya!" She gave a wave as she practically leapt forward, causing both to nearly fall backwards. "I'm Eisen, Eisen Diers!"

"Uh, hi, I guess." Alexei managed to get out. Even though the girl in front of him couldn't have been more than two meters away from him, he still felt like she was in his personal space. Feeling a shiver run down his spine, he looked over his shoulder to see Amanda behind his back, looking wearily at the over-enthusiastic girl.

"I'm with the photography club. We're just trying to get some early pictures of the incoming freshmen." Eisen stowed away the strange-looking camera in a bag hanging off her side. "Well, anyways, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've really got to go." The girl turned and skipped off, stopping only to a picture of an incredibly tall boy with Eastern features.

"Th-that was weird." Amanda said. Alexei could only agree quietly, a feeling of unease about the strange girl remained in the back of his head. Walking forward to the main building where most of the incoming students were heading, the two saw a few others that they recognized. He noticed Olivia Grimoire. The girl was wearing a purple dress that stopped above her ankles. It was one of the most conservative dresses Alexei had seen, with the only sections of her pale skin showing being her ankles, hands, and neck and face. Her long black hair went to her lower back and was topped by a small purple crown that had the the Grimoire family emblem of an opened book with a pen writing on its pages.

"Well, looks like the Grimoire heiress managed to buy her way into Beacon." Alexei muttered under his breath. Feeling Amanda's presence drift from him, he looked at her.

"I actually used to be friends with her." Amanda looked much more firm than usual.

"I-uh, sorry. I guess I'm just too quick to judge rich people." Alexei said nervously as he scratched the back of his head.

They walked on, a little more quiet until they ran into a familiar face. Her hair was cut short, just below the ears, in a wild fashion, as though she had done it herself. Two dark, short dog ears stood up above that, twitching every so often. Her jeans were torn off just below the knees, below which were two black combat boots with steel plates covering the toe. The tank top she wore was tight against her body, and stopped just above her belly button. The girl's pale blue eyes lazily scanned the crowd before coming to rest upon the two teenagers heading in her direction. "Oh, hey Amanda. Didn't know you finally got it on with the Berzerker."

Amanda immediately turned a shade of red as Alexei himself nervously shifted his gaze out to the skyline. The faunus girl in front of them chuckled as Amanda tried to stammer out a reply, but only got out a long string of gibberish. Alexei managed to clear his throat before speaking. "We're...not dating, Lainin."

"Oh believe me, I know. You two might try to stay out of all the spotlight, but if two members of the top ten started dating, it'd be the only thing those annoying preps would talk about." Lainin leaned against the tree she was standing by. "I never talked to you, Berzerker, but you always seemed cool. I know Amanda here likes you, so you're alright with me."

Seeing that Amanda wasn't going to speak, Alexei decided that the burden was on him to try and continue the weak conversation. "So, do you know when we're due in the auditorium, or where it is, for that matter?"

"I don't really know. Figured I could just wait for the crowd to clear and then sneak in a smoke or two before finding them again."

"You probably shouldn't try to do that on campus." Amanda spoke.

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't do a lot of things. I'm surprised I even got in here with my record. Either way, I'll see you two later. I really need that cig."

The faunus girl walked off, leaving the other two teens alone once again. The remainder of their aimless wandering was awkward. Neither knew what to talk about, and with the crowd finally thinned out, they didn't run into any others. Finally, they made their way into the large building that was already in their sights. Inside, a stage surrounded by another crowd was entirely bare with the exception of a microphone at its front.

The wait felt like hours to Alexei. Standing next to Amanda, he suddenly felt very conscious of her every movement. It felt similar to the time he spent with Yang at the movie theater. The talking amongst the crowd overwhelmed Alexei's ears, making it impossible to focus on any particular sounds, and he found himself unwillingly clenching his jaw. A loud, electronic tapping filled the room, gaining the audience's attention. Headmaster Ozpin stood on the stage, his Headmistress at his side. The two stood with complete confidence, Alexei noted. Ozpin leaned in closer to the mic.

"I try to keep these speeches brief. Many of you will not be graduating from this Academy." Quiet gasps filled the room, but the Headmaster continued. "We expect a lot from our students, as we are training you to be warriors, I do not doubt that many of you know the high casualty among hunters. The work many of you wish to make into a career, is filled with far less glory than stories would have you believe. Among those of you that graduate, you will lose friends and comrades in the field. Many will become changed by the harsh nature of the world beyond the walls of our city. Some won't be changed for the better. And though I must say it with a heavy heart, some of you may not even survive your time here. We are training you to fight monsters, ferocious beasts who would like for nothing more than to rip you to shreds. In order to prepare you for that, we must be just as extreme in our teachings. Just keep that in mind, should you find yourself having any doubts about being here."

With that, the Headmaster walked off the stage, and into a back room, leaving the crowd speechless, before Headmistress Goodwitch walked to the microphone.

"You'll all be sleeping in the common room tonight, and yes, you'll be sleeping co-ed, and under strict supervision. Dinner will be provided to you in the cafeteria, the location of which, you can find on any maps given to you, or your personal scrolls." She turned, and walked into the back room as well.

Alexei looked at the crowd around him. A few wore cocky smiles, while others looked like they were trying to look like the speech hadn't affected them. Others were pale-faced and visibly shaking. Startlingly enough, to Alexei, he didn't feel as affected, in fact, he felt better than usual. It felt like a new beginning. He had always been afraid in the human world, but in the world of a hunter, things were simple. He knew what to do, and what he had to work with. Sure, he felt nervous about the possibility of failure, but he worried more about letting others down than himself. For once, he felt good about a decision that he had made, and a smile worked its way onto his face. With thoughts that felt positive for once, Alexei made his way through the now-speaking crowd with Amanda just behind him, who, unbeknownst to him, was also smiling, having found strength from the boy she liked, as well as herself.

* * *

 **So, uh, a year, huh? Well, I guess I did say that my upload schedule was incredibly random.**

 **All in all, fuck this chapter. I feel kind of bad putting it out, but it had to be this way for the story to make sense. It wasn't very fun to write, but I hope it's at least a little fun to read. Originally, I was going to end it differently, but I thought this was a great place to end and I think the endings on my past two chapters have been kind of shit. Plus it's 10 AM and I haven't slept in awhile so my critical thinking skills might be in the shitter at the moment. Don't worry, I have graveyard shift at my new (pretty awesome by the way) job, so this is just pretty much my new schedule. Anyways, I'll try to answer some reviews that are over a goddamn year old. May the gods have mercy on my soul.**

 **DePlexx**

 **Thanks, and uh, I hope one year wasn't too long for a boring chapter with no action in it whatsoever. They'll probably kiss somewhere around the time that Alexei grows a pair of balls. Which will probably be never.**

 **Guest**

 **I did. Kind of extremely late, but hey, fuck me, right?**

 **Ionized Rose**

 **Yeah. Awkward teenage romance is super awkward. I remember being a teenager. I don't recommend it.**

 **Im Sammeh**

 **Really sorry man, I take more time than Kentaro Miura and George R R Martin put together to write one chapter at this point.**

 **Warhawk07**

 **Thanks, trying to write an OC that is both powerful in combat and flawed enough (I hope) to not be a Gary Stu can be tough. Writing someone with this many problems just makes me want to slap them across the face and tell them to nut up, but hey, that's mental illness.**

 **Guest**

 **You're welcome, and thank you.**

 **Well, after this, it's chapter 4. For those who are vets of the previous story, it'll definitely be familiar to you, but I'm going to try and make it way different. Pls no spoils for the new people. By the way, if anyone can coach me on how to effectively post on reddit, send me a PM. I'd like to shamelessly whore myself and my fic on the RWBY subreddit during their 'fanfiction friday' post thing.**

 **See you all next time for some more shitposting. (Fuck, I'm tired.)**


	4. Chapter Four: A Fool's Deity

**Well, sorry guys, I know it's been awhile. Nearly half a year, to be exact, but I'm glad that I finally got around to updating this thing. Between work, the last piece of content for the last Dark Souls game, (I'm still crying about that) and the hype, build-up, and finally the announcement of the next Total War: Warhammer game coming out this year, (holy shit I'm so ready for the Skaven) I've been very, very distracted. Also, I might start shifting my already weak focus onto finally drafting up and polishing my own original works. Also, I'm getting more and more interested in writing a fanfiction for the Warhammer Fantasy universe. Sorry, I'm definitely rambling by this point, without further ado, let's get started.**

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 **I know, I know, I'm sorry. I'm a massive dick, and I'm sure that many other authors are doing this on this lame joke day of a 'holiday', but I'm not so cruel that I'd do it without at least being somewhat confident that I may be able to update somewhat soon. As an apology, I'll include the first scene for chapter four in this prank update, as it was originally supposed to be included at the end of my last chapter, but I rushed out the end of the last chapter (I think it kind of shows) and I completely forgot about it. If you want to send me death threats, please do so through PM, as I don't want my reviews to get too clogged up.**

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 **Okay, I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself, here it is for real this time.**

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The gears in Ozpin's office never stopped turning. After so many decades, they rarely required maintenance. They had been custom made for his office by an old friend, now long gone. He always found their constant rhythm soothing after a long day of work. Only a two other things on Remnant could soothe him as much, if not better: warm beverages and, well-

Ringing brought him out of his musings. An alert on one of the screens at his desk told him that someone was requesting access to his office via the elevator. He tapped the button absentmindedly, while verbally telling whoever was on the other side to come in.

Glynda Goodwitch strode into the office with her usual sense of purpose. He felt a small smile form on his face unwillingly. Seeing this, the deputy headmistress stopped in her tracks, the asymmetrical curls on the right side of her face bouncing in a way that Ozpin always found himself staring at.

"What?" She asked, the usual tone in her voice higher than usual. Her eyes looked at Ozpin in a way that many of her students wouldn't believe her eyes could look: nervous. No matter how many years passed, Ozpin always found those eyes to be the most beautiful he had ever gazed into, even with the wrinkles that were slowly developing around them. The beauty of her youth was leaving her, being replaced by the beauty of a mature woman.

"Nothing, Glynda. You know that you don't need to alert me that you're coming into my office. Is there a particular reason for this early morning visit, not that I have any complaints." He continued to look at her, his face still one of pure content.

Glynda cleared her throat before holding up a folder and passing it to Ozpin's outstretched hand. "The picture that you asked Eisen to take finished developing."

Ozpin opened the folder and stared down at the photo. Alexei Serry and Amanda O'Flanagan stood with wide eyes, but that wasn't the strangest part of the photo. Both Alexei and Amanda were completely covered in color, as well as the people caught in frame behind them. Alexei was covered in a dark gray, while Amanda was covered in a deep red. In Amanda's core, near her stomach, a ball of red shined brighter than the rest. For Alexei, it was different. Ozpin gave an audible sigh, one of stress.

"What's wrong?" Glynda asked, moving to stand at his side.

"I'm sure you're aware of photography that allows one to see a person's aura and its color. Well, with the proper lens, one can make the image able to see where that aura is the most concentrated on a person, theoretically, allowing us to see their soul. In Alexei's case, he seems to have a disorder rarely seen in humans or faunus."

Glynda adjusted her glasses and leaned on the desk to get a better look at the photograph. When she saw what Ozpin had seen, she gave an uncharacteristic gasp.

Unlike Amanda, and everyone else in the picture, who had one concentrated amount of aura in their cores, Alexei had two, one noticeably smaller than the other.

"It would appear that either Alexei Seryy lost a twin sibling before birth, or his semblance is even far more strange and dangerous than we could have possibly imagined."

* * *

 **So there's your sneak peek. I'm actually quite satisfied with this, as I usually am with the start of most my chapters. It's some somewhat vague foreshadowing of what's to come in Chapter Four, which I'd also like to announce is going to be uploaded in two parts, as it'll likely be quite long. Maybe by the end of the decade, I'll actually be able to get to the first season of the show chronologically, since we're still a year prior to episode one. On another note, yes, I'm unashamedly a massive fan and shipper of Ozpin and Glynda. They might even be my favorite character pairing out of the entire cast. While young teenage romance has its definite appeal, there's just something about the romance of two, older adults at the height of their maturity and abilities.**

 **Anyways, that'll be it from me for now. Know that I'm still working on this thing. The first part of chapter four should come...well… you know the schedule by now. Eventually.**

 **One final note, like the temporary update I uploaded before Chapter 3, this one will be temporary as well, so if you leave a review on this temporary chapter, you may not be able to review Chapter Four whenever it does release, if you're planning on it. PMs are always welcome.**


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